I am Leo Gichuki, and this site is my personal field record. It follows how I move, build, observe, and think through life.
Here, I write about journeys, outdoor experiences, unique shelters, building notes, and reflections. However, this is not a normal travel blog. It is a living archive of routes, structures, ideas, and personal experiments.
I care about movement because roads reveal how places are connected. I care about shelters because spaces shape how people live. I care about building because ideas become clearer when they meet materials. Also, I care about reflection because experience needs attention.
So, this site holds the practical and the personal together.
What This Site Is About
This site is about movement, structure, and a different way to live. The movement comes through journeys across Kenya, East Africa, and beyond. The structure comes through shelters, geometry, tools, and building systems.
The inner life comes through reflections, books, music, memory, and observation. Therefore, every section connects to one larger question.
How can a person build a freer, deeper, and more useful life?
Not just online. Not just in theory. But through routes, land, work, shelter, and daily choices.
Where To Begin
Start with Journeys if you want routes, train rides, road trips, costs, and travel notes. Start with Outdoors if you want hiking, camping, trails, mountains, and field experiences.
Start with Unique Shelters if you care about domes, cabins, glamping, and off-grid living. Start with Build Notes if you like geometry, tools, materials, systems, and experiments. Start with Reflections if you want essays, poems, books, history, music, and personal notes.
Each path shows a different part of the same life. However, none of them stands alone.
The journeys lead to places. The places raise questions about shelter. The shelters lead to design and building. The building leads back to work, discipline, and patience. Finally, the reflections help me understand what it all means.
Why I Write
I write because memory fades when it is not recorded. I write because useful experience should not remain trapped in one person’s head. I write because travel becomes richer when costs, routes, and lessons are shared. I write because building teaches patience, structure, and humility.
Most importantly, I write because I am trying to build a life I can recognize. A life with movement, ownership, practical skills, and direct experience. A life shaped by systems, not guesswork. A life built more than consumed.
What To Expect
Expect practical travel notes from real routes. Expect honest outdoor stories from trails, camps, and mountains. Expect curiosity about domes, cabins, campsites, and alternative living. Expect build notes that explain materials, forms, tools, and systems. Also, expect reflections from books, music, history, work, and ordinary days.
Some posts will be polished. Others will feel closer to field notes. That is intentional.
This site is not only about finished answers. It is also about process, testing, learning, and better questions.
The Bigger Direction
Over time, this site will become more than an archive. It will connect my writing, projects, travels, and physical builds. It will document the path toward unique stays, outdoor spaces, and alternative living projects. It will also hold the personal thinking behind that work.
Because, for me, travel is not escape. Shelter is not just architecture. Building is not just about making things. And reflection is not just writing.
Together, they are ways of designing a different life.
A Simple Way To Read This Site
If you are new, begin with the categories. Choose the part of the world that pulls you first. Then follow the links between posts.
A journey may lead you to a shelter. A shelter may lead you to a build note. A build note may lead you to a reflection.
That is how this site is meant to work. Not as scattered posts. But as a growing map.
A map of movement, structure, and becoming.