When I am not travelling, I read about it. Here are another eight travel books that will make you want to pack your bags.
Ten Rivers Run Through It: Adventure Stories From the Arctic - Edward Struzik
Award-winning writer Ed Struzik takes the reader on a journey down 10 rivers in the Canadian North. Along the way, he describes the people, the landscapes, the wildlife and the history that has, and continues to make this part of the world such an inspiration to countless artists, writers, poets and adventurers. The North, Ed reminds the reader, is not so much a place as it is a state of mind––a landscape that is an intriguing mix of myth and reality, science and neo-science, truth and error.
Adventure Coordinators review: This book of adventures in Canada’s far north seems to have been written by an unassuming man who nevertheless is fully at home in the treacherous world that our Arctic can be. A good read, despite the atrocious spelling and grammar. 7.5 out of 10
Mountain Lines - A journey through the French Alps - Jonathan Arlan
In the summer of 2015, Jonathan Arlan was nearing thirty. Restless, bored, and daydreaming of adventure, he comes across an image on the Internet of a map of the southeast corner of France with a single red line snaking south from Lake Geneva, through the jagged brown and white peaks of the Alps to the Mediterranean sea — a route more than four hundred miles long. He decides then and there to walk the whole trail solo.
Lacking any outdoor experience, completely ignorant of mountains, sorely out of shape, and fighting last-minute nerves and bad weather, things get off to a rocky start. But Arlan eventually finds his mountain legs — along with a staggering variety of aches and pains — as he tramps a narrow thread of grass, dirt, and rock between cloud-collared, ice-capped peaks in the High Alps, through ancient hamlets built into hillsides, across sheep-dotted mountain pastures, and over countless cols on his way to the sea. In time, this simple, repetitive act of walking for hours each day in the remote beauty of the mountains becomes as exhilarating as it is exhausting.
Adventure Coordinators review: A nice read about the beauty of mountains, the exhilaration of hiking in remote regions and the joy of friendships made along the way. 7.5 out of 10
Mountains of the mind - Robert MacFarlane
Combining accounts of legendary mountain ascents with vivid descriptions of his own forays into wild, high landscapes, Robert McFarlane reveals how the mystery of the world’s highest places has came to grip the Western imagination—and perennially draws legions of adventurers up the most perilous slopes.
His story begins three centuries ago, when mountains were feared as the forbidding abodes of dragons and other mysterious beasts. In the mid-1700s the attentions of both science and poetry sparked a passion for mountains; Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Lord Byron extolled the sublime experiences to be had on high; and by 1924 the death on Mt Everest of an Englishman named George Mallory came to symbolize the heroic ideals of his day. Macfarlane also reflects on fear, risk, and the shattering beauty of ice and snow, the competition and contemplation of the climb, and the strange alternate reality of high altitude, magically enveloping us in the allure of mountains at every level.
Adventure Coordinators review: MacFarlane is one of my favourite authors and like his other writings, this book delivers. 8 out of 10
Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga - edited by William F. Fitzhugh and Elisabeth Ward
Replete with color photographs, drawings, and maps of Viking sites, artifacts, and landscapes, this book celebrates and explores the Viking saga from the combined perspectives of history, archaeology, oral tradition, literature, and natural science. The book's contributors chart the spread of marauders and traders in Europe as well as the expansion of farmers and explorers throughout the North Atlantic and into the New World. They show that Norse contacts with Native American groups were more extensive than has previously been believed, but that the outnumbered Europeans never established more than temporary settlements in North America.
Adventure Coordinators review: a great resource for those who are interested in Norse culture and history in Iceland, Greenland and Vinland. 8 out of 10
Lonely Planet - Epic road trips of Europe
Buckle up for the next installment in our Epic series and the follow-up to Epic Drives of the World. Showcasing 50 of Europe’s greatest road trips, from classic drives such as Route Napoleon through the south of France to longer trips including Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way or taking a campervan through Finnish Lapland in the Arctic summer. The book covers a huge variety of themes and experiences across drives that range from a few hours to a week or more.
Adventure Coordinators review: some classics and some drives that were new to me. The route descriptions are a little vague. 7 out of 10.
Rory Stewart - The Marches
From the best-selling author of The Places in Between, “a flat-out masterpiece” (New York Times Book Review), an exploration of the Marches—the borderland between England and Scotland—and the people, history, and conflicts that have shaped it.
In his thousand-mile journey, Stewart sleeps on mountain ridges and in housing estates, in hostels and in farmhouses. Following lines of ancient neolithic standing stones, wading through floods and ruined fields, he walks Hadrian’s Wall with soldiers who have fought in Afghanistan, and visits the Buddhist monks who outnumber Christian monks in the Scottish countryside today. He melds the stories of the people he meets with the region’s political and economic history, tracing the creation of Scotland from ancient tribes to the independence referendum. And he discovers another country buried in history, a vanished Middleland: the lost kingdom of Cumbria.
With every step, Stewart reveals the force of myths and traditions and the endurance of ties that are woven into the fabric of the land itself. A meditation on deep history, the pull of national identity, and home, The Marches is a transporting work from a powerful and original writer.
Adventure Coordinators review: interesting for it's retelling of the forgotten history of the lands straddling the English and Scottish borders. The book is also a nice homage to his father. Yet a narrative that binds it all together is unfortunately lacking. 7 out of 10
A croft in the hills - Katharine Stewart
A Croft in the Hills, first published in 1960, is now acknowledged as a classic among Highland books. It captures, in simple, moving descriptions, what it was really like trying to make a living out of a hill croft near Loch Ness fifty years ago. A couple and their young daughter, fresh from city life, immerse themselves in the practicalities of looking after sheep, cattle and hens, mending fences, baking bread and surviving the worst that Scottish winters can throw at them.
Their neighbours are few, but among them they find the generosity and community spirit that has survived in the Highlands for generations. Working as a tight family unit, they learn to cope, and in time grow to love their little croft. As Neil Gunn writes in his Foreword, their lives gain extra dimensions that ‘give the book its unusual quality, its brightness and its wisdom’.
Adventure Coordinators review: A lovely little read, the original "back to the land" novel about two parents and their young daughter who move from London to a croft in the Scottish Highlands. You read about their travails, how they become part of the community which is always ready to lend a hand when they most need it, and how their daughter grows up to be a true farmer's daughter. Towards the end you almost feel like you are part of the family. 8 out of 10
Guardians of the Trees: A Journey of Hope Through Healing the Planet - Kinari Webb
Full of hope and optimism, Kinari Webb takes us on an exhilarating, galvanizing journey across the world, sharing her passion for the natural world and for humanity. In our current moment of crisis, Guardians of the Trees is an essential roadmap for moving forward and the inspiring story of one woman’s quest to heal the world.
When Webb first traveled to Indonesian Borneo at 21 to study orangutans, she was both awestruck by the beauty of her surroundings and heartbroken by the rainforest destruction she witnessed. As she got to know the local communities, she realized that their need to pay for expensive healthcare led directly to the rampant logging, which in turn imperiled their health and safety even further. Webb realized her true calling was at the intersection of medicine and conservation.
After graduating with honors from the Yale School of Medicine, Webb returned to Borneo, listening to local communities about their solutions for how to both protect the rainforests and improve their lives. Webb and her local and international teams partnered with rainforest communities, building a clinic, developing regenerative economies, providing educational opportunities, and dramatically transforming the region.
Adventure Coordinators review: An inspirational read, confirming we are on the right track with our One Percent for the Future challenge. 7.5 out of 10
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