Bob Gibbons

Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons met in 1983, on a trek from Kashmir to Ladakh. By then Bob had already driven an ancient Land Rover from England to Kathmandu in 1974 and led overland trips across Asia, Africa and South America as well as decrepit old tourist buses around India. He had also lived in Kathmandu as a trekking company manager. Before they met, Siân had worked in computer programming and systems analysis, but her heart had always been in the Himalayas, after a trip there on her way back from working in New Zealand.

Since they met they have been leading and organising treks in the Alps, Nepal, Algeria and Niger; they have hitched across Tibet, driven a busload of over-50s overland to Nepal, explored the Sahara and driven across Africa to Gabon. Some of this was real work, but luckily that ‘proper job’ has not materialised. A journey by slightly less ancient (only 21 years old) Land Rover from England to Cape Town, provided the basis for the fourth edition of the Bradt guide Africa Overland. In complete contrast Siân and Bob have since updated the Bradt guides to the Maldives and the Cape Verde islands.

However, they regularly return to their first love, Kathmandu and the Himalayas, where they work with Pilgrims Publishing in Kathmandu. For Pilgrims they have produced a cultural guide to the valley –  Kathmandu: Valley of the Green-Eyed Yellow Idol – as well as new books on the monasteries of Ladakh (Ladakh – Land of Magical Monasteries) and a cultural, historical overview of the Guge kingdom (Kailash and Guge – Land of the Tantric Mountain).