The book describes a 21st century journey following the direction taken by anatomically modern humans who left the African nursery around 80000 years ago and reached Australia 20000 years later. Along the way, they laid the genetic foundations for humanity's oldest civilizations - and ultimately inhabited every corner of the globe. The result of these travels is not a scientific treatise. Although the science is not ignored, the centre lies elsewhere. The author undertakes this west-to-east endeavor in the imagined company of his autistic grandson, who serves both as confidant and as a human archetype. This allows the book to verge upon a unique blend of factual travel writing and an almost magical internalised interpretation. What the two travellers find together is a tangle of new experiences and responses, from which the linkages between primeval past and complex present gradually emerge. Here is a work of literary travel writing that describes an enchanted journey through some of the ancient places of the world and into the currently deeply troubled heart of the human adventure. The evidence encountered on the journey suggests that a fundamental universality of humanity's place in the cosmos lies beneath all regional differences and is characterised as much by humility and co-operation as it is by the imperative to survive and/or the will to power. The book does not set out to prove a point, however, but to celebrate the complexity of human responses. It is more a creative work than it is a dissertation with an unambiguous conclusion. Nevertheless, the bibliography gives an indication of some of the sources used, which includes the work of historians, archaeologists, political scientists, biographers and psychologists, as well as authors writing on the various religions of the world.

John Wesley Powell's 1869 expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers and through the Grand Canyon continues to be one of the most celebrated adventures in American history, ranking with the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Apollo landings on the moon. For nearly twenty years Lago has researched the Powell expedition from new angles, traveled to thirteen states, and looked into archives and other sources no one else has searched. He has come up with many important new documents that change and expand our basic understanding of the expedition by looking into Powell's crewmembers, some of whom have been almost entirely ignored by Powell historians. Historians tended to assume that Powell was the whole story and that his crewmembers were irrelevant. More seriously, because several crew members made critical comments about Powell and his leadership, historians who admired Powell were eager to ignore and discredit them. Lago offers a feast of new and important material about the river trip, and it will significantly rewrite the story of Powell's famous expedition. This book is not only a major work on the Powell expedition, but on the history of American exploration of the West.

In British Columbia by the Road, Ben Bradley takes readers on an unprecedented journey through the history of roads, highways, and motoring in British Columbia’s Interior, a remote landscape composed of plateaus and interlocking valleys, soaring mountains and treacherous passes. Challenging the idea that the automobile offered travellers the freedom of the road and a view of unadulterated nature, Bradley shows that boosters, businessmen, conservationists, and public servants manipulated what drivers and passengers could and should view from the comfort of their vehicles. Although cars and roads promised freedom, they offered drivers a curated view of the landscape that shaped the province’s image in the eyes of residents and visitors alike.

In April 2014 Mark Horrell went on a mountaineering expedition to Nepal, hoping to climb Lhotse, the fourth-highest mountain in the world, which shares a base camp and climbing route with Mount Everest. He dreamed of following in the footsteps of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, by climbing through the infamous ice maze of the Khumbu Icefall, and he yearned to sleep in the grand amphitheatre of Everest Base Camp, surrounded by towering peaks. He was also intrigued by the media publicity surrounding commercial expeditions to Everest. He wanted to discover for himself whether it had become the circus that everybody described. But when a devastating avalanche swept across the Khumbu Icefall, he got more than he bargained for. Suddenly he found himself witnessing the greatest natural disaster Everest had ever seen. And that was just the start. Everest Sherpas came out in protest, issuing a list of demands to the Government of Nepal. What happened next left his team shocked, bewildered and fearing for their safety.

When the photographer Enzo Barracco decided to mount a photographic expedition to Antarctica, inspired by the example of Sir Ernest Shackleton, he had much more than simple cold to contend with. As the world's last empty continent, the snowy lands of the South Pole are a challenge for the most seasoned explorer, with their merciless winds, treacherous seas and vast sheets of ice. Even to arrive on the continent itself involves a perilous journey by sea from southern Argentina through the notoriously rough Drake Passage. THE NOISE OF ICE: ANTARCTICA explores what drove Barracco to embark on his journey, and tells the story of the expedition in words and astonishing photographs, all of them captured during the trip and many obtained in hazardous conditions. In his gripping text, Barracco explains how even his journey to Antarctica itself was undertaken with the essential help of an ice pilot, to spot and avoid icebergs that ship's radar can miss. He tells of how the waves on that first journey threw him to the deck and brought home how hostile such an environment is, and of his constant battle to protect his photographic equipment and all-important memory cards from the extreme cold. Most importantly, he explains that in capturing these beautiful landscapes, his intention is to remind us all of the precarious position in which this part of the world finds itself. As the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes puts it in his foreword to THE NOISE OF ICE, "witnessed by only a few, Antarctica should be enjoyed by many and protected by all".

After a decade of research, author and broadcaster George Edmunds has finally unlocked the meaning of the mysterious cipher carved into the famous Shepherd's Monument in the grounds of the Shugborough Estate, Staffordshire, Lord Anson's ancestral home. This 300 year old secret is the final link to locating the multi-million pound Treasure hidden by a Spanish Captain-General. Lord Anson heard of this treasure through his position as Lord of the Admiralty and membership of the Royal Society. A secret expedition met with unforeseen circumstances preventing recovery. The decoding of the cipher proves Lord Anson's involvement and when you know the secret, it is obvious that this is what the monument was for. This revelation also proves the direct link to Rennes-Le-Chateau in the South of France and its enigmatic 'religious' mystery. A mystery no more. Besides telling the story of Lord Anson's search for this huge treasure, stories are told of the unsuccessful treasure hunts that followed. Seemingly unrelated, these include Cocos Island, Juan Fernandez Island and Oak Island. All have common DNA connecting them to Lord Anson's expedition. Also, the enigmatic treasure charts of Captain William Kidd found before WW2 whilst linked to this story, are shown to be fraudulent.

In April 2012 Mark Horrell travelled to Tibet hoping to become, if not the first person to climb Mount Everest, at least the first Karl Pilkington lookalike to do so. He joined a mountaineering expedition which included an Australian sexagenarian, two Brits whose idea of hydration meant a box of red wine, and a New Zealander who enjoyed reminding his teammates of the perils of altitude sickness and the number of ways they might die on summit day. The media often write about Mount Everest deaths and how easy the world's highest mountain has become to climb, but how accurately does this reflect reality? The Chomolungma Diaries is a true story of ordinary people climbing Mount Everest with a commercial expedition, and preparing for the biggest day of their lives. Imagine your life clipped into a narrow line of cord five miles above the earth, on the world's most terrifying ridge walk. This book will bring you just a little bit closer to that experience.

Historians, biographers, and scholars of John James Audubon and natural history have long been mystified by Audubon's 1843 Missouri River expedition, for his journals of the trip were thought to have been destroyed by his granddaughter Maria Rebecca Audubon. Daniel Patterson is the first scholar to locate and assemble three important fragments of the 1843 Missouri River journals, and here he offers a stunning transcription and critical edition of Audubon's last journey through the American West. Patterson's new edition of the journals-unknown to Audubon scholars and fans-offers a significantly different understanding of the very core of Audubon's life and work. Readers will be introduced to a more authentic Audubon, one who was concerned about the disappearance of America's wild animal species and yet also loved to hunt and display his prowess in the wilderness. This edition reveals that Audubon's famous late conversion to conservationism on this expedition was, in fact, a literary fiction. Maria Rebecca Audubon created this myth when she rewrote her grandfather's journals for publication to make him into a visionary conservationist. In reality the journals detail almost gratuitous hunting predations throughout the course of Audubon's last expedition. The Missouri River Journals of John James Audubon is the definitive presentation of America's most famous naturalist on his last expedition and assesses Audubon's actual environmental ethic amid his conflicted relationship with the natural world he so admired and depicted in his iconic works.

'He pulled a cassette out of the glove box and put it in the stereo, pressed rewind and then play. Was it still 1980 in Memphis? Some fast-paced blues crackled out of the speakers.' *************** 'The guide book said it was 'well worth making the trip to this colourful outdoor market'. It was a market of just fruit and nothing else. It was time we stopped listening to the crap guide book recommendations...time to find our own way.' *************** Dog Days is a lively account of a three-month road trip that Andrew and his girlfriend Lucy took around the United States. They drove 15,000 miles around 45 states, by car and Greyhound bus, known as the 'Dog' by the fearsome locals who ride it. Follow Andrew and his girlfriend Lucy through landmarks including Monument Valley and Yellowstone, to a New York Yankees baseball game, a dude ranch in Montana and a rodeo in Wyoming. More than just a travel memoir, Dog Days provides vivid descriptions of the physical landscape, and unravels the characters they encountered along the way -- with some very candid observations of America and its people. They began their trip believing they knew a lot about the country, but quickly discovered just how different from the rest of the world it really is.

When Hernan Cortes met the Mayans, Aztecs and other cultures of the gulf coast of Mexico in 1519, it was the first extended contact between the peoples of continental America and Europe. The Spanish found cities larger and better run than any in Europe, and pyramids greater than Egypt's. The Aztecs believed time was running down and they lived in the final age of the world. Many Spaniards believed Christ's millennium was approaching, and God's revelation of Americas had opened the final act: the conversion of the remote races of the earth. After the Day of Judgement God's experiment with man was over. The laboratory, the physical world, would be destroyed. Both cultures were acting out the last days. Halfway through researching this book John Harrison had a scan which told him he would not live to write it; he was seeing out his own days. The Aztec people were concerned with the transitory nature of worldly things; some of their rulers were revered as much for their philosophical poetry as their conquests. John Harrison follows Cortes's route along the Mexican coast and across country to modern Mexico City, home of the Aztecs.A journey within journeys to the end of time, the book becomes a meditation on time, on mortality and self, from a modern master of travel writing.

"Finally Fram showed herself in all her glory as the best sea-boat in the world. It was extraordinary to watch how she behaved. ... the Fram gave a wriggle of her body and was instantly at the top of the wave, which slipped under the vessel. Can anyone be surprised if one gets fond of such a ship?" --Captain Nilsen of the Fram, 1912. From her launch in 1892, to the triumphant return to Norway in 1914, the polar expeditionary ship Fram sailed north almost to the North Pole, and south to Antarctica. supporting three of the most daring of all polar adventures. In the centenary year of Roald Amundsen's successful trek to the South Pole, this is the story of his ship, the Fram, and her voyages to the ends of the earth.

What would you do if you were travelling alone believing that you were joining a tour group for a holiday, only to find that you are the only person in the group? What turned out to be very different holiday from that expected, is shared with warmth and humour. This delightful travelogue in its easy to read style, will not only inspire you to travel solo, but absorb you into the culture and experience of Vietnam. Susan has the rare ability to draw you into her journey, not just physically around Vietnam but also into her private thoughts and feelings as a solo traveller. Adventure, entertainment and sadness are all here, and we feel that we personally know the characters she encounters along the way. This is not a travel guide, although the insights and descriptions from a personal perspective would be a useful addition for any visitor to Vietnam.

The history of Fort Phantom Hill is an interesting saga of defense, a story of both political necessity and individual hubris, and a tale of human perseverance and shortsightedness. The story of the "Post on the Brazos River" has all the elements that characterize human activity with its triumphs and tragedies, victories and defeats.
As time passed, circumstances dictated changing uses for the structures at Fort Phantom Hill, from military outpost to stage station to hunter's outpost. Eventually, opportunities for adaptation ran their course and the stone structures fell into neglect. The frontier was occupied by new immigrants who possessed a more modern technology. The threat of Indians was replaced by the hard daily work of living in a semi-desert environment.
In "Fort Phantom Hill: The Mysterious Ruins on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River," Bill Wright weaves the threads of this story into the larger warp and weft of western history and shows how this small fort was conceived, lived, and died as an important part of the "winning of the West."

Captain Bungle's Odyssey. Singlehanded Round the World. The author describes life as a cruising sailor culminating in an attempted to break the solo circumnavigation record.

Details the military aspects of the American Expeditionary Force's (AEF) deployment to Siberia following World War I to protect the Trans-Siberian Railroad. In the final months of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson and many US allies decided to intervene in Siberia in order to protect Allied wartime and business interests, among them the Trans-Siberian Railroad, from the turmoil surrounding the Russian Revolution. American troops would remain until April 1920 with some of our allies keeping troops in Siberia even longer. Few American citizens have any idea that the United States ever deployed soldiers to Siberia and that those soldiers eventually played a role in the Russian revolution while protecting the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Wolfhounds and Polar Bears relies on the detailed reports of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) as well as on personal stories to bring this rarely discussed expedition to life. Initial chapters recount the period in World War I when conditions in Russia pointed to the need for intervention as well as the varied reasons for that decision. A description of the military forces and the geographic difficulties faced by those forces operating in Siberia provide the baseline necessary to understand the AEF's actions in Siberia. A short discussion of the Russian Railway Service Corps explains their essential and sometimes overlooked role in this story, and subsequent chapters provide a description of actual operations by the AEF. Wolfhounds and Polar Bears: The American Expeditionary Force in Siberia, 1918-1920 may well be the most detailed study of the military aspects of the American intervention in Siberia ever undertaken, offering a multitude of details not available in any other book-length history.

The Antarctic is the last, vast terrestrial frontier on Earth. Less than a century ago, no one had ever seen the South Pole. Today, odd machines and adventure skiers from many nations converge there every summer. They arrive from many starting points on the Antarctic coast and go back some other way. But not until very recently had anyone completed a round trip from McMurdo Station, the U.S. support hub on the continental coast. The last man to try that perished in 1912; a surface route remained elusive until John H. Wright and his crew finished the job in 2006. Blazing Ice is the story of the team of Americans who forged a thousand-mile transcontinental “haul route” across Antarctica. For decades, airplanes from McMurdo Station supplied the South Pole. A safe and repeatable surface haul route would have been cheaper and more environmentally benign than airlift, but the technology was not available until 2000. As Wright reveals in this gripping narrative, the hazards of Antarctic terrain and weather were as daunting for twenty-first century pioneers as they were for Norway’s Roald Amundsen or for England’s Robert Falcon Scott when they raced to be first to the South Pole in 1911–1912. Wright and his team faced deadly hidden crevasses, vast snow swamps, the Transantarctic Mountains, badlands of weird wind-sculpted ice, and the high Polar Plateau. Blazing Ice will appeal to Antarctic lovers, adventure readers of all stripes, conservationists, and scientists grappling with the conjunction of institutional culture and their fieldwork.

"I am a flight animal, like a horse, so my response was to run away from the evil. I wanted to leave mass humanity, the city, and civilization. I wanted to remove myself from other people and immerse myself in the seclusion of nature. I wanted peace of mind. I wanted solitude." Adam Cruise, disillusioned with his urban lifestyle, persuades his wife Amanda to abandon their business, home and three cats in Cape Town for a six-month journey into the remote interior of southern Africa. Their trip, in an expedition-prepared 4x4 but without any pre-planned idea other than to avoid civilization as much as possible, weaves through the remote recesses of the sub-continent in search of a true wilderness experience where real nature is untrammelled by human activity. Among lions, elephants and other African wildlife the couple find a harmonious and balanced world but one that is under a constant threat from the ravages of human advancement and mistreatment. This book is more than travel as escape; it's a personal quest in search of a solution to the eternal conflict between humanity and the environment. In a philosophical, anecdotal and sometimes witty approach Adam's curiosity and observations both reveal the compelling qualities of nature as well as unveiling the devastating effects of humanity - both African and Western - on even the most secluded places.

The Home of the Blizzard is a tale of discovery and adventure, of pioneering deeds, great courage, heart-stopping rescues and heroic endurance. This is Mawson's own account of his years spent in sub-zero temperatures and gale-force winds. At its heart is the epic journey of 1912-13, during which both his companions perished. Told in a laconic but gripping style, this is the classic account of the struggle for survival of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition - a journey which mapped more of Antarctica than any expedition before or since. The photographs included in this book were taken on the journey by Frank Hurley, later to achieve fame on Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition. 'One of the greatest accounts of polar survival in history.' - Sir Ranulph Fiennes