Rob Frey

How It Started

A good way to start a story is with a bit of drama, so here’s mine:

I died. A heart condition put me in a hospital bed, and for a brief time, that was it. Flatline. Nothing achieved that far. When I came back, something had shifted. Not on the outside, but completely on the inside. I needed a purpose, and I knew exactly what it was.

When I was declared healthy again, I didn’t go back to what I had before. I left. Straight from the hospital to the airport, heading into a world that, to me, was completely unexplored.

At first, I ended up on an archaeological excavation in Rome. Just for a day—but the way history was uncovered there fascinated me completely. Naturally, I wanted more. So I set out to Nepal to look for the legendary lost city of Shambala. What can I say, I aim high.

After taking on a few odd jobs here and there to get by, I heard about the Kumari Caves. A place people said would drive anyone mad who entered it.

That was all I needed to go looking for it.

In the spring of 2016, after months in the jungle, I found the cave. I solved the mystery, and secured what was hidden inside.

That was the moment I became an explorer.

After that, I didn’t stop.

I followed leads across the world, from lost cities in the Sahara to forgotten shrines in Japan, missing artworks in Belgian churches, and many more.

Along the way, I worked in archaeology for nearly a decade, learning everything in the field. From Neolithic sites to modern history, I was there, digging, documenting, uncovering.

But exploration, and writing about it, always stayed at the core.

Areas Grey

Areas Grey is Adam Grey’s independent explorer-investigator platform, built around unresolved history, lost places, myths, legends, and the kind of leads most sensible people would probably leave alone.

I first worked with Adam in 2022, when I joined an Areas Grey investigation in Cornwall connected to the lost treasure of Henry Every. It was supposed to be one expedition. One mystery. In and out, boots muddy, story told. Naturally, that is not how things went.

Instead, I met Adam, and what started as a single collaboration turned into a long-term friendship and partnership in research, fieldwork, expeditions, and chasing questions that have a bad habit of leading somewhere dangerous, inconvenient, or very interesting.

Since then, Adam and I have worked together across England, France, and the Canary Islands, following old leads, testing ideas in the field, getting things wrong, getting a few things right, and occasionally stumbling into something neither of us expected.

One of our most recent expeditions led us to a lost settlement of the Guanches, the indigenous people of the Canary Islands, on Tenerife. Together, Adam and I wrote Areas Grey: Canary Islands Expedition, a book about the journey, the research, the wrong turns, the field notes, and the discovery itself.

There are still many legends, lost places, and historical mysteries we want to pursue together, and plenty more expeditions planned for the years ahead. Visit Areas Grey to see what Adam is building, what leads are still on the table, and what trouble we may be walking into next.

Writing

Over time, I realised that the stories matter just as much as the discoveries. So I write. Not to polish things but to show them as they are.

The uncertainty. The wrong turns. The moments where everything suddenly makes sense.

I write for history, travel, and adventure magazines as a freelance journalist. In these articles I focus on bringing a story to life.

I mentioned my first book already,

Areas Grey Canary Islands Expedition.

Philosophy

Almost everyone hears the call to adventure at some point in their life.

For most, it comes and goes. A moment. A thought. A “what if.”

For me, it never stopped.

It’s a constant roar in my chest.
And if I were a more reasonable man, I’d probably ignore it. I’m glad I’m not.

I venture into the history of mankind, and into the wild places of the world, driven by a curiosity I know I share with many others.

And because of that, I see it as my responsibility to share what I find. Not in a polished or perfect way. But in a real one.

What I write isn’t aimed at winning awards. It’s simply meant to share a story, and the knowledge that comes with it.

Passed from one human to another, with all the emotion, humour, and occasional chaos that comes with it.

Because sometimes, even imperfect stories can shine a light on parts of history that are still hidden.

— Rob Frey

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