Many of my happiest memories stem from my love of Leeds United and travel - often combining both!

I attended my first Leeds United match in 1961 and my first overseas visit was in 1971 - to watch Leeds United. Since then, football has taken me to countless destinations and opened the door to a life of travelling and exploring the world.

What began as travelling to follow my team gradually developed into a passion for discovering new countries, cultures and people. That journey has now taken me to 144 official countries (United Nations Member States), as well as many other territories around the world.

Along the way, I have captured tens of thousands of photographs and written blogs to share the stories of places I've visited, the people I've met and the experiences and adventures that I've loved.- some of which were truly amazing. However, I have also witnessed  some really heartbreakingly sad sights -  where it would have been totally inappropriate to take photographs.

Sadly, the year 2020 was an exception. Because of the Covid pandemic, it was the first time in more than 40 years that I neither travelled overseas nor attended every Leeds United match.

I hope you'll enjoy exploring my website—browsing the photographs from my travels, reading about my adventures, and perhaps even finding a little inspiration for your own journeys.

Roy

As you will read elsewhere on this website, my first travels overseas was to watch Leeds United play in Barcelona in September 1971. Already out of my teens, this was my first such journey.

My second overseas visit was in May 1973 to Greece to - once again - watch Leeds United. Clearly a combination of football and travel were becoming so important and enjoyable to me that I continued in this vein by travelling to all Leeds United's away European games in late 74 and early 75.

I had certainly got the travel bug by then as visiting different countries, cities and cultures appealed to me so much. Not only that, but the photographs I returned with alongside numerous stories paved the way for so many adventures.

In those early days, travelling overseas was usually arranged by travel firms as packaged holidays became popular, but I didn't want to spend a couple of weeks in a hotel full of fellow Brits, I wanted the freedom to go explore where the locals were living and to learn about their lives - and so I began making my own arrangements which wasn't easy, but so much more rewarding with what I experienced.

Travelling did become easier in the decades to come - with the internet and technology becoming major tools in fulfilling those dreams.

One final thought I have often had... I have never known anyone travel and come back saying they didn't like it and would never do it again!

Roy

The date 28th March 2011, will always stay in my mind.

I was in Cambodia, on the coast at a place called Sihanoukville resting with a drink on the beach. A young guy (Mao) approached me asking if he could make a woollen bracelet for me. That chance meeting certainly changed my life in many ways - and hopefully changed his family's lives for the better.

I hope you will read the web pages I have developed over the years that I have known them. It will give you a big insight as to how others live - and how that meeting led to special friendships.

I have developed and updated the pages relating to the family as events occurred and time passed.

It shows the difficulties and hardships the family have had over many years, The appalling living conditions they had to endure, the constant battles to get and keep jobs, the many times when they would have had no money to buy some rice.

However, it also has some positives. Friends of mine who have donated money and clothes to help them in their daily lives. Pictures of the family moving in to better living conditions and the family growing up over the years.

The two youngest were infants when I first met them and my priority was to get them to attend school everyday - something which the other members of the family had not been able to do. It has been a wonderful journey seeing them grow up into fine young men.

Roy

In my early years - whilst I was at junior school, my father introduced me into watching sport. He was a rugby fan and therefore took me to watch the local rugby team with him,

However, when I was 10 years old, I was selected for my school football team and as a reward, was given a free ticket for a match to watch Leeds United. Little did I know, but that free ticket was to become one of the biggest influences throughout my life.

It was a feeder to going to Elland Road to watch Leeds whenever I had the opportunity to do so. Sadly, I do not remember who that first games opponents were - only that to was in the autumn of 1961.

In the years to come, football -  Leeds United - became such a large part of my life. 

I have travelled the length and breadth of the country - never missing a game. My passion for watching Leeds United also took me on so many overseas trips too.

In the early days, I took a cine camera to record my adventures on those overseas trips, which later became invaluable as it played a major part of a documentary film - PARIS 75

Like my boundless passion for travel, my boundless passion for watching Leeds United will continue to fulfil my life until I can no longer do it.

Roy