Tim Cope Quotes

Tim Cope

Profession : Author

Birth : December 7, 1978

Meeting Australian mountaineer and author Tim Macartney-Snape when I was 16 in 1994 had a big impact on me. His ascent of Everest from sea to summit captured my imagination.

Tim Cope

What drew me to Kazakhstan was a curiosity to learn about life in this 'middle earth' of steppe between the endless forests of Russia in the north and the world's greatest mountain chains to the south.

Tim Cope

Much of my journey in Kazakhstan was about understanding the legacy of the Soviet times and finding out what remained of nomadic.

Tim Cope

In Mongolia, the nomads always told me that wolves were the most dangerous things on the steppe, and I didn't believe them at first.

Tim Cope

For me, adventures are a vehicle for travelling deep into the fabric of society, coming to know the environmental conditions that shape people's lives and viewing the present in the context of history.

Tim Cope

I love the Altai Mountains. Crimea, despite all the conflict, is a remarkable place historically, culturally and physically. The mountains drop down into the sea. Porpoises swim in the shallows. Horses gallop through the grass. There are huge rocks, castles, caves.

Tim Cope

It's hard to find a place where you're out of earshot of some kind of noise.

Tim Cope

Steve Fossett and I would share a common belief that it is possible and good to challenge yourself to the extreme.

Tim Cope

In Khazak culture, historically, if any traveller comes riding from a long way, there is an obligation to take him into your home. For the first three days, the host doesn't even have the right to ask his name, his destination or his business.

Tim Cope

When you come out of the storms and sub-zero temperatures into a tiny yurt, there's a sense that family love and care is the most important thing in the world.

Tim Cope

I think the nomads really give us inspiration about how we can live in harmony with our environment.

Tim Cope

Earth was not built to serve the needs of humans.

Tim Cope

I don't think patience is something that any of us grow up with in a large dose. It's a world of instant gratification.

Tim Cope

My three-year ride by horse from Mongolia to Hungary was the most difficult, most revealing, and interesting of any of my travels. Travelling by horse, you're far more engaged and dependent on the land and other people than by any other means.

Tim Cope

I have brought many artifacts back with me from the steppe. My favourite is a 90-year-old Kazakh saddle decorated with silverwork in traditional motifs. It symbolises the deep relationship between man and horse on the Eurasian Steppe.

Tim Cope

In the initial stages of my journey, I was trying to travel too fast by horse by sticking to a 'five days on and two off' schedule. On the steppe, time is not measured by days, weeks or hours but the fall of the seasons and condition of the animals.

Tim Cope

A single camel can carry around 300 kilograms. Using camels for hauling during migration is becoming a rarity in Mongolia, where mechanized transport is gradually replacing traditional means.

Tim Cope

The Khoton people are a small minority group of Mongolians renowned for living a traditional nomad life in the remote slopes and valleys of the Kharkhiraa-Turgen mountain range.

Tim Cope

Finding shelter with nomads in the desert during summer was a matter of survival for me and my animals.

Tim Cope

We can see every square metre of the planet on Google Earth. But there is no substitute for that sensory experience of going out into the world and discovering things for yourself.

Tim Cope