Jonny Bealby is the Founder of Wild Frontiers; a travel agency specialising in travel along the Silk Road. Jonny has travelled in the region since the 1990s – he rode a horse along the Silk Road in 1999, about which he published his third book, ‘Silk Dreams, Troubled Road – Love and War on the Old Silk Road: On Horseback through Central Asia’. Jonny has visited more than 100 countries and, in addition to his books, he has had articles featured in the Daily Telegraph, The Times, Observer, The Guardian and Wanderlust. He has lectured to the Royal Geographical Society on a number of occasions in both London and Hong Kong.

Marc Leaderman heads up the Product and Operations departments at Wild Frontiers and is a Silk Road expert having travelled back and forth along the route for over two decades. Although predominantly based in the UK office these days, Marc has led over 100 tours and his recent travels have taken him to Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Macedonia & Bulgaria.

Caroline Eden is a writer and critic contributing to The Guardian, BBC and The Times Literary Supplement who has travelled extensively in the Central Asia region over many years. Caroline’s books include ‘Samarkand’, ‘Black Sea’ and most recently, ‘Red Sands’, a reimagining of traditional travel writing, using food to explore Central Asia, which was chosen as a 2020 ‘book of the year’ for The Financial Times and The New Yorker. Twitter and Instagram: @edentravels

Christopher Wilton-Steer is a travel photographer and also serves as Head of Communications at the Aga Khan Foundation UK. Christopher’s professional and personal work take him to a variety of remote locations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In 2019, he travelled 40,000km overland from London to Beijing working on a photography project about the Silk Road. His work has been featured in magazines and newspapers around the world including National Geographic, The Guardian, CNN, Financial Times, and Der Spiegel amongst others. Christopher’s first exhibition was at the Institut Française in Antananarivo, Madagascar, in 2016. His second exhibition was shown at the London’s Royal Geographical Society in 2018 and his latest exhibition – ‘The Silk Road: A Living History’ – is currently on display in King’s Cross, London.