Travel Writer & Photographer Runs French Website from his Kalahari home

Living on the southern edge of the Kalahari Desert hasn't stopped Mike Kingdom-Hockings from running a popular website with France as its main focus. FranceForFreebooters.com features articles and photography by Mike Kingdom-Hockings and friends. With its mission statement: "Let me show you things you'd never find....", the site concentrates on places, events and history which are not usually covered by guidebooks and mainstream reporting.

Mike Kingdom-Hockings and his wife have lived in Gaborone, Botswana, for more than 10 years, but plan to retire in the Limousin Region of France once they have completed renovation of their once-derelict farm cottage and barn.

A year and a half ago, Mike abandoned a lifetime's dedication to the IT industry and took up travel writing and photography. "I needed a creative occupation that fitted with our desire to continue spending a significant amount of time traveling each year", he says.

Although he was already publishing in print sources varying from International Living to Radio World International, he felt the need for an unrestricted, continuous outlet for his creativity. FranceForFreebooters was the result. On this website he is webmaster, editor and one of the regular contributors, as well as responding to requests for advice from would-be visitors to France. The site now runs to over a hundred pages in an eclectic collection of articles and photo essays covering subjects that include the construction of the Canal du Midi, a walk along a trail that predates mankind, the Kalahari 1000 km Desert Race, a recipe for pumpkin soup, and a notorious French-born pirate. Placing much of this material would have pre-empted a large part of the time Mike has spent in creative work.