User: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.

• If you need help with anything at all, please leave a message on my talk page.
• If there's something you need to discuss in private, email me in strictest confidence.

Sandbox

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:

Rather annoyingly, my 10,000th edit on Wikivoyage, usually a milestone to celebrate, was undoing vandalism to my own userpage. Ten thousand thundering typhoons!

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.

	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)

	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)

	The Wikivoyage Barncompass
	Great work on handling outdated docent notices. ---Selfie City (talk | contributions) 00:29, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

	Barnstar of Good Humor
	Thank you for making me smile today. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:30, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

	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)

	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)

		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)

	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)

	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)

	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)

Canada

• 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
• June 2025: up and down The Corridor in Ontario and Quebec

• May 2024: Calgary
• Sept 2024: Calgary Heritage Park and Edmonton
• Apr 2025: Banff and Banff National Park
• July 2025: Jasper National Park, the Icefields Parkway and Lake Louise (finally)

• 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
• July 2025 - present: Victoria

• July 2025: St. John's with humpback whales at Canada's easternmost point.

• May 2025: Toronto (with thanks to Ground Zero for showing me around!), Niagara Falls
• June 2025: Ottawa jail hostel

• May 2025: Montreal
• June 2025: Quebec City, with daytrips to Lévis and the Montmorency Falls

• May 2026: The New Forest with Dad
• June 2025: The Lake District National Park to celebrate family
• 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

Trips made earlier than two years ago are stored in my trips archive. Because I'm thoroughly anal like that.

(table shamelessly stolen from Andrewssi2)

My records	Place	Figure
Northernmost	Reykjavík-Keflavík Airport	63.59° N
Southernmost	Sea Lion Island	52.26° S
Easternmost	Taupo	176.06° E
Westernmost	East Sooke Regional Park	123.42° W
Closest to the equator	Singapore	1.29° N
Highest	Fox Glacier	3,000 m (9,800 ft) above sea level
Lowest	Channel Tunnel	115 m (377 ft) below sea level
Furthest inland	Melville	943 km (586 mi) from Hudson Bay
Longest flight	Single plane: RAF Brize Norton (BZZ IATA) — RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN IATA) Multiple planes: Christchurch (CHC IATA) — London Heathrow (LHR IATA)	13,000 km (8,100 mi) 19,000 km (12,000 mi)
Longest sea voyage	Plymouth — Santander	770 km (480 mi)
Longest rail journey	Single train: Vancouver (Pacific Central) — Toronto (Union) Multiple trains: Farnborough (Main) — Tours (Gare de Tours)	4,466 km (2,775 mi) 790 km (490 mi)
Longest road journey	Farnborough — Barcelona	1,600 km (990 mi)
Longest walk	Southampton — Portsmouth on the Solent Way	40 km (25 mi) / 9 hr
Longest border crossing	Karasovići (Dubrovnik-Neretva) / Debeli Brijeg (Herceg Novi)	90 min / 2.2 km (1.4 mi)

• 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.

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:

Ascension Island

Bosnia and Herzegovina / Bosna i Hercegovina

Canada

Croatia / Hrvatska

Falkland Islands

France

Brittany / Breizh / Bertaèyn / Bretagne

Occitania / Occitània / Occitanie

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

Portugal (including Madeira)

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

United Kingdom

England / En-ger-land

Cornwall / Kernow

Scotland / Alba

Wales / Cymru

United States of America

• 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
• Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Gatineau, Kelowna, Montréal, Niagara Falls, North Vancouver, Québec, Richmond, St. John's, Toronto, 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

• 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

This user is a bureaucrat on English Wikivoyage. (verify)