ThunderingTyphoons!

Hello, world! I'm ThunderingTyphoons!, or "Jamie", as people in real life tend to call me, when they're being nice. I come from Hampshire in the United Kingdom, with family roots in Liverpool and Cardiff. A graduate of the University of Sheffield, I have been a fully committed francophile for as long as I can remember.
As of 15 January 2024, I have been a Wikivoyager for eleven years and I am a bureaucrat on the administrative team.
My work on Wikivoyage

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I prefer to work on destination articles related to the United Kingdom and France, though I also patrol recent changes and my watchlist. Many of the weirder Discover facts you read will have been chosen by me. Pages I have created (bold) and / or have contributed extensively to:
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Rather annoyingly, my 10,000th edit on Wikivoyage, usually a milestone to celebrate, was undoing vandalism to my own userpage. Ten thousand thundering typhoons!
Thoughts on editing
As an editor, I enjoy:
- writing in lively style about places I know.
- finding new facts for Wikivoyage:Discover all over the world's best travel guide.
- writing article leads.
- contributing to history, transport and food-related articles and sections.
- welcoming new users to Wikivoyage.
I think the following aspects of editing are tedious but necessary:
- adding images
- adding listings (seriously)
- copy-editing
- dealing with problematic edits
- anything to do with impossible-to-remember but damn useful templates
Things you won't find me doing:
- doing "technical" things - my programming skills are nonexistent
- making a static map - see above
- working on anything related to the United States - we have a large number of fine American editors who are brilliant at what they do, so a destination article for just about anywhere else in the world is much more in need of my time.
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
Next to excellence is the appreciation of it. So here is your medal of appreciation. We need ten thousand thundering typhoons like you! Well done Jamie. Saqib (talk) 14:27, 3 March 2015 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
For being willing and able to change your mind, and for having the courage to say so. Happy and successful communities depend upon people like you. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:29, 1 November 2017 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
Great work on handling outdated docent notices. ---Selfie City (talk | contributions) 00:29, 23 August 2018 (UTC) |
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Barnstar of Good Humor |
Thank you for making me smile today. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:30, 9 April 2020 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
I just read the Stratford-upon-Avon article, and the quotes are a great touch. What a delightful theme for that article. —Granger (talk · contribs) 16:04, 15 August 2020 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
I am giving you this for all your hard work on Wikivoyage, although this is Wikipedia and I am mostly found here. Cupper52 (talk) 17:17, 16 December 2020 (UTC) |
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The Original Barnstar | |
Thank you for helping me! I saw that you had a barnstar and thought I'd give you a second one. 82.3.185.12 14:12, 23 December 2020 (UTC) |
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The Wikivoyage Barncompass |
This Barncompass is for helping me creating those new articles. I also saw you were collecting them. 82.3.185.12 14:14, 23 December 2020 (UTC) |
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The Kiwi Barncompass |
For making, maintaining and keeping Oamaru to Dunedin avoiding State Highway 1. Hope I can use that route when I go to New Zealand next year. --08:25, 12 April 2021 (UTC) |
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The Sysop's Barncompass |
This Barncompass is to show appreciation for your great work on being a great admin on Wikivoyage and reverting the Projects guy's harassment and vandalism.--SHB2000 (talk contribs en.wikipedia) 05:47, 21 April 2021 (UTC) |
Trips
Current
- May 2025: VIA Rail's The Canadian from Vancouver, BC to Toronto, ON with leg-stretchers in Jasper, AB; Melville, SK; Sioux Lookout, ON; Hornepayne, ON
- May 2024: Calgary
- Sept 2024: Calgary Heritage Park and Edmonton
- Apr 2025: Banff and Banff National Park
- May-Sept 2024: Invermere
- Sept 2024: Vancouver, North Vancouver
- Sept-Nov 2024: Victoria
- Nov 2024-Apr 2025: Invermere
- Jan/Apr 2025: Radium Hot Springs and Kootenay National Park
- Apr 2025: Road trip through Yoho, Glacier, and Revelstoke National Parks
- Apr 2025: Kelowna
- May 2025: Richmond, Bowen Island and other parts of Metro Vancouver; day trip to Whistler
- May 2025: Toronto (with thanks to Ground Zero for showing me around!), Niagara Falls
Recent
- November 2024: Bracklesham Bay birdwatching bonanza
- October 2024: Seattle long weekend in the real Emerald City (and met the Cowardly Lion. No, that is not a euphemism or a drugs thing).
- January 2024: retour à Paris
- November 2023: Bracklesham Bay and Chichester long weekend
- September 2023: Cancale between Saint-Malo and Mont-Saint-Michel
- May 2023: Return to Edinburgh; first time in North Berwick and Newcastle-upon-Tyne
- March 2023: Shanklin, IoW long weekend
- January 2023: Bristol "normal" weekend
Trips made earlier than two years ago are stored in my trips archive. Because I'm thoroughly anal like that.
Pointless lists to do with my own travels that I find interesting
Travel records
(table shamelessly stolen from Andrewssi2)
My records | Place | Figure |
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Northernmost | ![]() | 63.59° N |
Southernmost | ![]() | 52.26° S |
Easternmost | ![]() | 176.06° E |
Westernmost | ![]() | 123.42° W |
Closest to the equator | ![]() | 1.29° N |
Highest | ![]() | 3,000 m (9,800 ft) above sea level |
Lowest | ![]() ![]() | 115 m (377 ft) below sea level |
Furthest inland | ![]() | 943 km (586 mi) from Hudson Bay |
Longest flight | Single plane: ![]() ![]() Multiple planes: ![]() ![]() | 13,000 km (8,100 mi) 19,000 km (12,000 mi) |
Longest sea voyage | ![]() ![]() | 770 km (480 mi) |
Longest rail journey | Single train: ![]() Multiple trains: ![]() ![]() | 4,466 km (2,775 mi) 790 km (490 mi) |
Longest road journey | ![]() ![]() | 1,600 km (990 mi) |
Longest walk | ![]() | 40 km (25 mi) / 9 hr |
Longest border crossing | ![]() ![]() | 90 min / 2.2 km (1.4 mi) |
Most-memorable travel experiences
20 August 1944
Two local men were caught stealing a bomb from a munitions factory. As punishment, they were taken by Nazi soldiers and shut in the factory to be blown up with it... Read more |
Cream tea wars
Devon and Cornwall are divided not just by the Tamar, but by the proper way to prepare scones... Read more |
Culture shock
In some cases, culture shock is unavoidable, but learning to recognise it in yourself is the first step to overcoming it. Contributing factors include... Read more |
Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé !
Every third Thursday of November, the new Beaujolais wine arrives at bars and restaurants across France... Read more |
Quelle cuisson ?
A common question when ordering meat in Francophone countries (especially steak) is how long you want it cooked for: bleu, à point, or bien cuit? Read more |
The girl beneath the Gherkin
In 1995, during construction of the Gherkin skyscraper, the skeleton of a young girl was unearthed... Read more |
The Highgate vampire
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'Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma' what?
York is popularly known as a place "where the streets are gates, the gates are bars, and the bars are pubs!"... Read more |
- Teaching kids English for seven months in Tours.
- Any time I go to Wales, the land of my father(s).
- Experiencing the spectacular wildlife of the Falkland Islands.
- My first time in the Channel Tunnel, as a wide-eyed four year-old.
- Flying to and walking on the source of Fox Glacier on Mount Cook in New Zealand: in shorts and a t-shirt!
- Anything archaeological, particularly prehistoric art, stone circles, Roman stuff, or proper nice castles.
- Seeing over 50,000 northern gannets (depleted from 150,000 due to the pandemic), plus puffins, shags and eider ducks on and around the Bass Rock.
- Being stripped of my European citizenship (acquired at birth) and travelling back in time 50 years.
- Visiting the remains of Auschwitz-Birkenau, for reflection and mourning.
Countries I have been to
I have been very lucky so far in my life to have done a lot of travelling. I have set foot in 25 countries around the world, mainly in Europe, though I have also visited Asia and Oceania and done my fair share of Atlantic islands:
Bosnia and Herzegovina / Bosna i Hercegovina
Croatia / Hrvatska
Germany / Deutschland
Greece / Ελλάδα (Crete / Κρήτη)
Hungary / Magyarország
Iceland / Ísland
Ireland / Éire
Italy / Italia
Monaco / Múnegu
Montenegro / Crna Gora / Цpнa Гopa
New Zealand / Aotearoa
Poland / Polska
Singapore / Singapura / 新加坡 / சிங்கப்பூர்
Spain / España (including the Balearic Islands / Islas Baleares / Illes Balears and the Canary Islands / Islas Canarias)
Basque Country / Euskadi / País Vasco / Pays Basque
Catalonia / Catalunya / Cataluña
Switzerland / Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera
Turkey / Türkiye
England / En-ger-land
Cornwall / Kernow
Scotland / Alba
Wales / Cymru
Cities of the world I have been to
London, Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Chester, Chichester, Durham, Edinburgh, Kingston-upon-Hull, Leeds, Lichfield, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Oxford, Portsmouth, Salford, Salisbury, Sheffield, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, St Albans, St Davids, Swansea, Winchester, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Wrexham, York
Mostar
Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria
Dubrovnik
Stanley
Paris, Amiens, Angers, Bayeux, Blois, Bordeaux, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, Carcassonne, Colmar, Lille, Montpellier, Nice, Nîmes, Orléans, Perpignan, Quimper, Rouen, Saint-Denis, Saint-Malo, Strasbourg, Toulon, Toulouse, Tours, Versailles
Berlin
Chania
Budapest
Monaco
Cetinje, Herceg Novi, Kotor
Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch
Kraków
Funchal, Silves
Singapore
Madrid, Arrecife, Barcelona, Girona
Basel
Marmaris
Seattle
All counties I have set foot in rather than simply passed through, and not nearly as exciting a list as 'how many U.S. states I've set foot in':
- Berkshire
- Buckinghamshire
- Cheshire
- The City of London
- Cornwall
- County Durham
- Cumbria
- Derbyshire
- Devon
- Dorset
- Essex
- Gloucestershire
- Greater London
- Greater Manchester
Hampshire
- Herefordshire
- Hertfordshire
- Isle of Wight
- Kent
- Lancashire
- Merseyside
- Norfolk
- Nottinghamshire
- Oxfordshire
- Shropshire
- Somerset
- Staffordshire
- Surrey
- Sussex: East and West
- Tyne and Wear
- Warwickshire
- West Midlands
- Wiltshire
- Worcestershire
- Yorkshire: North, South, East and West
Travel wishlist (no particular order)
- New York City
- Loads more of France, Turkey and my own country.
- Prague
- Moscow
- The Louvre, Paris ✔
- Canadian Rockies
- Snowdonia ✔ish
- Nepal and Tibet
- St Petersburg
- United States National Parks
- The Alhambra (Granada, Spain)
- Egypt, for the archaeology
- India
- Slovakia
- Mongolia
- China
- La Scala, Milan
- Edinburgh ✔
- York ✔
- Mainland Greece - particularly Athens - for the archaeology
- The interior of Montenegro
- Steinbeck's California
- Rome (I would travel back in time to late Republican Rome if I could just to marvel at the spectacle of an ancient metropolis)
- Istanbul
- The Carpathian Mountains
- Yellowstone National Park
- The top of the Shard, London ✔
- The Trans-Siberian Railway (Moscow to Vladivostok!)
- Nîmes ✔
- Lyon
- Penetrate deeper into the Black Forest
- Patagonia, particularly Y Wladfa
- Kyrgyzstan
- Monument Valley
- Louisiana
- Berlin ✔, ideally with my father ✔
- Heidelberg
- Amsterdam by Eurostar
- Tallinn
- Quebec
- The Knepp Estate, West Sussex ✔
- Glasgow
- Stirling
- Northumberland
- Newcastle-upon-Tyne ✔
- Cambridge
- Vienna
- Mexico - particularly MC, Yucatán, San Miguel de Allende, Sonora...
- Chicago
- Boston
- Corsica
- Basque Country
- See the Northern Lights
- Santiago de Chile
- Santiago de Compostela!
- Georgia
- Iceland
- Alaska - apparently Denali is accessible by train.
- Lille → Dunkirk → Kusttram → Bruges → Brussels
- Uzbekistan: Tashkent, Samarkand
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