A New Home

Tony called me on Sunday morning. 'Have you seen your website?' I hadn't. It looked like this. I assumed the worst: my domain name had come up for renewal, and someone had bought it. Bensaunders.com was dead.

My first thought was to email my host, but the email wasn't working either. After the hassle I'd had trying to get the site working again recently, I couldn't believe this was happening. I thought of all the thousands of people I'd given my email address to over the last four years. The SOUTH sponsors who'd think I'd done a runner with their cash. And the 30,000+ visitors that come to this site every month. I'd let them all down.

Anyway, relatively normality has returned, and the battered and bruised bensaunders.com (and last year's expedition site, which is still down) is moving to a new home this weekend, thanks to Pete Barr-Watson and his company, Pixelfury.

Once the sites are sitting comfily in their new server, I'm going to throw a bit of a house-warming party, with a minor redesign, a few new articles for the resources section and a daily training diary. Not to mention some slightly more regular blog posts – without you lot being able to comment it feels a bit like I'm talking to myself right now.

Last up, a few links for your perusal…

1) BlueSky MOD – I could see myself living in one of these, maybe on the edge of Dartmoor. Part of what I love about expedition living is the simplicity – life stripped to the bare, minimalist essentials. The idea of a simple, *small*, low-impact home somewhere wild really appeals to me.

2) 'Arctic ice disappearing quickly'. Uh huh.

3) Andy Kirkpatrick's mind-bendingly gnarly photos on Flickr (and indeed Andy Kirkpatrick's excellent website – his articles on gear, clothing and technique are top-notch).

Things might go a bit wonky between now and the beginning of next week. Please do not adjust your set.

— Filed under Miscellany