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Alex Nixon

@afnixon

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📍 Scotland, UK
💛 Angola, IN, USA 🇺🇸
✈️ Global Traveller

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13.08.2026 🤍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

After all these years, all those miles, and more than a few adventures…

We got married.

Just the two of us, a celebrant and two photographers.

More photos to come, this is just a sneak peak.

With Karlea being a florist, it only seemed fitting that she would make her own wedding bouquet.

The day before we got married, we visited Tomnaha Flower Farm in Crieff, where she picked the flowers that would become her bouquet.

One of our favourite photos because it somehow captures our story perfectly.

Karlea in the foreground, pulling together the beautiful things in life. Alex in the background, working away on a laptop somewhere far from home.

For so much of our story, this has been us building our lives together, while jobs, countries and thousands of miles have often kept us apart.

Our parents have always taught us that marriage is about teamwork. Turns out ours started before we’d even made it down the aisle.

Karlea had just had her nails done, a rare occasion when you spend most of your time playing guitar or potting plants, which made the tiny buttons on her dress almost impossible to do up.

One of the things we loved about getting married in Scotland is that, with a Humanist ceremony, you can get married practically anywhere.

A church never really felt like us. A greenhouse tucked away on a Scottish hillside did.

Warm, cosy and full of life. Big open windows, earthy wooden beams, flowers growing all around us and the hills just beyond the glass.

We each wrote our own vows, but without knowing it, we both came back to the same things.

A little dizzy from spinning Karlea around after reading our vows.

A little detour to the ruins of a Castle.

Old stone walls, overgrown woodland and a bit of Scottish history, exactly the kind of place we wanted to disappear off to for wedding photos.

Just the two of us, now husband and wife, wandering around a 400-year-old castle in the middle of Scotland.

We rented a 4x4 for our trip through the Highlands partly for the adventure, but also because it felt like another small reflection of us.

So much of our relationship has been about movement. Different countries, long drives, flig taken in Perth, Perth and Kinross by @afnixon

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2 months ago

This week, in the Scottish Highlands, after seventeen years of friendship, distance, timing and choosing each other over and over again…I asked Karlea to marry me and she said yes.

Anyone who’s tried to do long distance will tell you it’s hard. I won’t pretend it’s not. Sometimes you don’t have the energy to talk on FaceTime or your time zones don’t sync up. You can’t just be in one another’s presence. Then the time you have together you feel you have to make the most of because it’s months until you’re going to be reunited so you live every day as though you might run out of time. But for the last five or so years we’ve been turning up for one another and choosing to make it work.

What started as a teenage holiday romance floating along a lazy river became Jordan sunsets, walks through Central Park, nights out in Nashville, delivering florals to weddings, hikes through the Dolomites, safari mornings in Kenya, life above a flower shop, babysitting and dog walking, Karlea trying to spot me in a sea of runners during races, and countless flights across the Atlantic; hours in the air just to feel like you can finally breathe again when you land and see them waiting in arrivals.

We are really excited for our future together, to finally be in the same place and at the same time together. taken in Loch Ness, Scotland by @afnixon

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5 months ago

I finally broke 3.

Back in December 2022, I wrote down a goal: Before I leave NEOM, I want to run a marathon in under 3 hours. I reached out to @nickbutterrun to be my coach and signed up for a series of races. Just 4 weeks into training, I ran Riyadh and found out where I was at. Then came @manchestermarathon — a practice race for @chimarathon That one taught me the marathon is as much mental as it is physical. It taught me to fuel properly and to never walk again.

After Manchester, I broke my ankle stepping off a bus in Italy — a setback that paused training for weeks. But with support from @karleaboleyn8 @kortneysutton28 and @suttonnick5 and Penelope, I ran Chicago later that year and got closer to the goal.

In 2024, I challenged myself to run 2km every day. I got into the Barcelona Marathon thanks to my friends at RPM Sports and ran a new PB of 3:03. So close. I kept running daily, but work made it tough to return to Chicago for a stab at the 3.

Fast forward to this spring: after getting sick and dealing with shin tendinitis, I just made it to the Paris start line — full of nerves. I jogged from my apartment to the start, shaking off doubts.

My race mantra:
• We eat hills for breakfast.
• Everyone believes in you.
• Stay in the zone.

Pace came naturally until km 32, when cramps hit and the tunnels tested me. No more gels, legs twitching, but I grit my teeth and put my head down. With 800m to go I chased down the time. I retouched these photos to remove the blood soaked shirt but decided to leave it here as a reminder that life isn’t photoshopped and Marathons are hard.

Now: 17 days to recover in the Saudi sunshine.
55 days until Maverick Peaks.
5 months until Ironman 70.3 Michigan.
6 months until Chicago.

The new goal: a @bostonmarathon qualifier and @londonmarathon good for age time — 2:55.

In the words of @joe.booty let’s get after it. taken in Paris,France by @afnixon

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2 years ago

If you’re planning a trip to Peru, @mountainviewexperience is definitely somewhere I’d recommend spending a night or two!

Located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, near the traditional Andean town of Maras, Mountain View Experience is about an hour’s drive from Cusco. Surrounded by the spectacular Andes Mountains, rolling green hills and farmland, it’s one of those places where the scenery almost doesn’t look real.

The Sacred Valley itself is one of the most beautiful regions of Peru, home to ancient Inca sites, traditional villages and incredible mountain landscapes. The hotel is also close to the famous Maras Salt Mines and the circular Inca terraces of Moray.

Rather than a traditional hotel, Mountain View offers cosy, rustic A-frame cabins with panoramic mountain views, wood-burning stoves and outdoor hot tubs. The best part? Alpacas and llamas roam around the property! 🦙

We stayed here after completing the four-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and it was exactly what we needed after days of hiking and camping.

We spent the afternoon enjoying a picnic overlooking the Andes, painting with watercolours and watching the alpacas wander past. Later, we relaxed in an outdoor hot tub with a glass of sparkling wine, surrounded by mountains and curious alpacas.

It was such a contrast to the previous few days of trekking and one of our favourite stays in Peru.

Whether you’re exploring the Sacred Valley, visiting Machu Picchu or just looking for somewhere unique to switch off for a night, this place is well worth adding to your itinerary.

📍 Mountain View Experience, Maras, Sacred Valley, Peru

Save this for your Peru adventure!

#PeruTravel #SacredValley #CuscoPeru #MountainViewExperience #VisitPeru IncaTrail taken in Sacred Valley, Peru by @afnixon

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3 days ago

After four days hiking the Inca Trail and one very questionable night in a hotel in Ollantaytambo, we made our way to @mountainviewexperience for some much-needed R&R.

Safe to say this was quite the upgrade! Incredible views, amazing food, a few new furry friends and an afternoon of painting (with varying degrees of artistic talent). 🦙🎨🍷

Not a bad way to round off our time in the Sacred Valley, Peru! 🇵🇪 taken in Sacred Valley, Peru by @afnixon

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3 days ago

Waking up early is only the half of it. by @afnixon

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3 days ago

taken in Inca Trail to Machu Picchu - Peru by @afnixon

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7 days ago

taken in Inca Trail to Machu Picchu - Peru by @afnixon

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7 days ago

It’s been just over seven months since we set off on our Inca Trail adventure, and what a whirlwind those seven months have been!

Since then, @karleanixon8 and I have got engaged and married, I’ve lived in Scotland and had the privilege of working on the Commonwealth Games alongside some incredible people, and now I’ve packed my bags once again and moved to another slightly lesser-travelled corner of the world, Serbia, for my next adventure.

Looking back, I’m incredibly grateful that I got to share this experience with my American family, @kortneysutton28 and @suttonnick5 . It feels like a lifetime ago already. And while I’m excited about this new chapter, there’s definitely a part of me that’s sad to have left everyone back in the USA.

Our four-day Inca Trail itinerary:

📍 Day 1: Km 82 → Wayllabamba
📍 Day 2: Wayllabamba → Paqaymayu Alto
📍 Day 3: Paqaymayu Alto → Wiñay Wayna
📍 Day 4: Wiñay Wayna → Machu Picchu

Over the next week or so, I’ll be sharing some of my favourite photos from the trail while I patiently wait for our film to come back.

I’m hoping that revisiting this adventure and sharing these photos will give me the inspiration I need to start picking up my camera more often again. Somewhere along the way, between moving countries, work and everything else life has thrown at me, photography has taken a bit of a back seat.

Here’s to making more time for the things we love, capturing the moments along the way, and appreciating just how much can change in seven months. by @afnixon

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9 days ago

🇵🇪 Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu — and the guide who made it unforgettable! 🏔️

When we first started considering a trip to Peru to hike the Inca Trail, I reached out to a friend who had recently completed it. He couldn’t speak highly enough of his guide, Ray, and immediately passed on his contact details.

From the first message, Ray was brilliant. We were a little concerned about whether the Inca Trail would be open in March, but he reassured us, answered all our questions and sent through confirmation of our permits as soon as we’d paid the deposit.

We met Ray in Cusco the day before setting off, where he talked us through what to expect over the next four days. From that point on, everything was taken care of. Hotel pick-ups, camping equipment, meals, permits, train tickets and our return transfer. All we had to do was walk and enjoy the experience!

And what an experience it was.

Ray was everything you could hope for in a guide: personable, funny, patient and with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Inca civilisation, Peruvian history and the surrounding mountains.

What made the experience particularly special was learning about the people and culture of the Andes. Quechua, the Indigenous language of the Incas, is still widely spoken in the mountain communities surrounding Cusco. Hearing about the traditions, beliefs and history that have been passed down through generations added so much more meaning to the places we were walking through.

Over four days, we followed ancient stone paths, climbed mountain passes, walked through cloud forests and explored incredible archaeological sites. For much of the trek, it genuinely felt as though we had the mountains to ourselves, apart from our amazing team of porters and chef.

And they deserve just as much recognition. The porters worked incredibly hard behind the scenes, carrying equipment, setting up camp and ensuring everything was ready when we arrived. Meanwhile, the food coming out of Chef Fortu’s tiny mountain kitchen was better than some restaurants I’ve eaten in!

I also happened to be celebrating my birthday on the trek, and couldn’t have been more surprised when Chef Fortu appeared with a bea taken in Inca Trail to Machu Picchu - Peru by @afnixon

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10 days ago

by @afnixon

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10 days ago

taken in Amazon Jungle, Peru by @afnixon

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10 days ago