Simon Richmond

 Simon Richmond's first gig for Lonely Planet was on the Kazakhstan chapter of their Central Asia guide. Having recently completed two books on adventure travel in Southeast Asia and South America, where he had, among other things, learnt to dive, hacked his way through dense jungles, paddled furiously along rapid rivers, climbed snow-covered, smoldering volcanoes and mountain-biked down perilously steep tracks, the British-born writer and photographer felt prepared to tackle a country more of interest to mountaineers and oil prospectors than your average backpacker or package tourist.