Tour Leaders for Afghanistan
At Wild Frontiers we believe that the succcess or failure of an escorted tour can often be determined by the knowledge, enthusiasm and passion of the person leading it.
Many of our guides have lived and worked in their specific regions and whilst they may not have encyclopedic knowledge they are all extremely informed about the ways of travel, and are interesting people with background in aid work, journalism, travel writing, photography and expedition planning.
Our guides for Afghanistan are:
Jonny Bealby
Growing up in England, Scotland and Canada, Jonny developed a passion for travel and upon finishing college journeyed extensively in Australasia and the Far East. Since then he has earned a crust in a variety of ways: singer in a band, stunt horse rider, circus roustabout, motorcycle courier and photojournalist to name but a few. He started running trips to Pakistan in 1998 and set up Wild Frontiers Adventure Travel in 2002. Jonny has visited more than 80 countries, written three books and had articles featured in a variety of publications including the Daily Telegraph, The Observer, The Times, Independent and Traveller Magazine. He has also lectured to the Royal Geographical Society on Afghanistan & Pakistan.
Matthew Leeming
Haiving graduated from Oxford with a degree in theology, Matthew first travelled to Afghanistan in 1999 (where he met WF’s head honcho Jonny Bealby) and has been returning ever since. To call Matthew 'Mr Afghanistan' would be no exaggeration. He has travelled every inch of this fascinating country, knows all the main players in the region – our groups regularly have tea with Ishmael Khan – has lectured to the Royal Geographical Society and written numerous articles and the first guide book on the country in almost three decades. Add to that he is a charming man, utterly devoted to the well-being of a country that has lodged itself deep in his soul.
Mette Steen
Our most experienced Ethiopia guide, known for her passion and enthusiasm, has spent the past 18 years traversing the African continent with side trips to Middle East and Central Asia. Previously engaged in tree planting in the Sahel, managing a safari camp in Tanzania to textile design in Zimbabwe and studies of Art History & Archaeology at SOAS, she has now worked as a guide for nine years. Driven by idealism and a belief that travelling creates understanding where most other approaches fail, Mette maintains a focus on implementing tourism as means of poverty alliviation and local economic development. She specialises in recc'ing new trailblazing itineraries most recently in Southern Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Iranian Baluchistan. In between guiding, she lives in Copenhagen where you can find her painting, cooking and reviewing her nomadic kilim collection. We are proud to have her working with us.
Marc Leaderman
Narrowly escaping the "lawyer, doctor or accountant" stereotype career that is the fate of many London sons, Marc taught English in Romania & Japan before becoming a door-to-door salesman in Australia. He then spent the next 8 years as a UK tax-exile, tourleading a in a range of destinations, from North Korea to Mali, before finally returning to his London roots to head up the operations department at Wild Frontiers. Marc still enjoys leading tours whenever he can although he does find now that he has to pay some tax.
