About Edward
My name is Edward Adrian-Vallance and I have four lives.
My wife Katya and I at the top of Mount Satima, Kenya’s third highest peak at 4,001 meters
In no particular order they are:
1. My life in Arctic Siberia. I spend a huge amount of time here every year, as it is the main destination served by the tour operator I founded in 2011 – Arctic Russia Travel. I have spent years living and migrating with nomadic reindeer herders, as one of our main themes is responsible ethnotourism. I have also lived with indigenous horse herders, mammoth tusk hunters, antler traders, bear hunters and all sorts of weird and wonderful people. The coldest I have ever been was when riding a sledge attached to the back of a snowmobile for 5 hours in -68°C.
2. My life with my wife and friends in Moscow, where I have been based since 2006. This involves inordinate amount of time sitting behind a computer doing all sorts of work requiring all sorts of skills I’ve learned on the job and had never imagined would be necessary when I first started guiding people in the Siberian Arctic. Luckily it also involves: a) living with the love of my life and soul mate Katya, herself a member of the Siberian Yakut people from the coldest inhabited part of the world, b) rides around Moscow Province and Moscow’s many parks on our Trek DS 3 bicycles, c) outings to restaurants for delicious food, drinks and shisha, and d) meetings with friends to discuss new and exciting business and investment ideas.
3. My life travelling outside of Russia. Ever since living in Oman from the age of 11 – 13, I have been obsessed with travel. From 2005 – 2011, travel was all I thought about and the sole goal of my existence. I lived in Moscow giving private English lessons for US$50 an hour, working until I had enough money to leave and go traveling then returning to Moscow and its insatiable demand for English to start all over again. At this time, all of my travel was focused on visiting tribal and nomadic peoples, my min interest at the time. From 2011 – 2015, while working on expanding my tour operator, I dropped almost all travel and travel-related hobbies such as blogging. I had no time for anything other than work. Once in 2013 I got away to China and Tibet but that was it. In 2015 I married Katya and, with the tour operator already working successfully, was able to take an extended honey moon with her and keep working at the same time, as long as I had internet. We travelled overland and by sea from Siberia to New Guinea. Once again I was hooked on travel and realized that this was something we could do each year for a few months. With Katya’s interests added to mine our style of travel is now much more varied than mine was in the past, although definitely less extreme. We structure our trips by creating overland routes around the world we want to follow. So far completed routes include Patagonia to Mexico, UK to Burkina Faso, UK to Kenya, UK to Papua New Guinea and UK to many different parts of Arctic Siberia.
4. My life in England. This life definitely gets the least time devoted to it but is by no means the least important. I grew up in an Oxfordshire village and still consider it home. My parents, whose endless support has given me the encouragement and willpower I needed to pursue the life of my dreams, are in Oxfordshire. Most of my uni friends in London. Unfortunately we normally only get to spend around 2 weeks – 1 month in England every year but this is invariably one of the happiest and calmest times of the year. It seems that getting back to your roots can be just as rewarding as following your routes. Sorry 
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