In the summer of 1958, jazz and blues historian Samuel Charters traveled with Ann Danberg to Andros, a remote island "on the wrong side of the wind" in the Bahamas. Living within a small local community descended from a handful of Bahamian slaves, they discovered how the unique historical fusion of disparate cultures on Andros, from Africa and Europe, had resulted in a wealth of traditional music that had stubbornly resisted the influx of modern styles. Combining rare travel and musical elements with Danberg's evocative photographs, Char-ters describes their search for a song so rich and startling in its resonance, they had to follow it to its source. "Just about the best 'what-I-did-on-my-summer-vacation' report ever written." --"Booklist "(starred review)

The world's top 500 food experiences - ranked! We asked the planet's top chefs, food writers and our food-obsessed authors to name their favourite, most authentic gastronomic encounters. The result is a journey to Mozambique for piri-piri chicken, Japan for bullet train bento boxes, San Sebastian pintxos bars, and a further 497 of the most exciting eateries anywhere on Earth. Ultimate Eatlist is the follow-up to our bestselling Ultimate Travelist and is a must-own bucket list for foodies and those who love to travel. You'll discover the planet's most thrilling and famous culinary experiences, the culture behind each one, what makes them so special, and why the experience is so much more than what's in the plate, bowl or glass in front of you. How many have you tried and what's your number one? With contributions from Monica Galetti, Curtis Stone, Mark Hix, Ben Shewry, Dan Hunter, Ping Coombes, Gail Simmons, Tony Singh, Elena Arzak, and many more. Entries include: Laksa, Malaysia Grilled octopus, Greece Smorrebrod, Denmark Ceviche, Peru Po boy, USA Steak tartare, France Bibimbap, Korea Dim Sum, Hong Kong Reindeer Stew, Finland Jerked chicken, Jamaica Asado, Argentina Shakshuka, Israel Pho, Vietnam Wildfoods Festival, New Zealand The Fat Duck restaurant, UK Tokyo sushi counters, Japan Bistecca alla Fiorentina, Italy Adelaide Central Market, Australia Grilled fish, Seychelles Irish stew New York Reuben delis, USA About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more.

Nasty, Brutish, and Short is a collection of irreverent essays about life overseas. The author no longer has to hold his tongue about his experiences-which means it's payback time. He now speaks his mind about all the strange people and places he has encountered around the world over the last twenty years. And he takes the reader on a funny and endearing jaunt to a dozen countries, from England to Egypt, and Afghanistan to Haiti, answering crucial questions like Why are Pakistani driving ranges so dangerous? And, How long can Bulgarians actually hold a grudge? Unlike other foreign travel books, the author isn't just passing through. He has lived in these dangerous and difficult places, often for years at a time. He knows their people, streets, and customs like the back of his hand. It was part of his job. Sometimes his life depended on it.

Escape to Languedoc in this poignant and transportative true account of life in a beautifully restored house in the south of France 'This love affair between an English family and a very old French house is by turns turbulent, lyrical and tragic . . . Enriched by an insatiable, ever-eager curiosity, he takes us down many a side alley, adding another dimension to the timeless story of what it is that makes France irresistible' MICHAEL PALIN 'What a wonderful book. Exquisitely written, it is by turns laugh-out-loud funny then suddenly, unexpectedly and profoundly moving... an utter joy and a treat to read from the first to last pages' JAMES HOLLAND 'He writes with genuine emotion . . . He writes beautifully about life in a French village' DAILY MAIL ________ One day a Londoner and his wife went a little crazy and bought a crumbling house in deepest Languedoc. It was love at first sight. Over the years these Londoners gradually turn the house into a home. They navigate the language, floods and freezing winters. And eventually they find their place - their bar, their baker, their builder (ignore him at your peril). Slowly the family and the locals get to know one another and these busy English discover slower joys - the scent of thyme and lavender, the warmth of sun on stone walls, nights hung with stars, silence in the hills, the importance of history and memory, the liberation of laughter and the secrets of fig jam. One Place de l'Eglise is a love letter - to a house, a village, a country - from an outsider who discovers you can never be a stranger when you're made to feel so at home. Old houses never belong to people. People belong to them. ________ 'Wonderful. Exquisitely written, it is by turns laugh-out-loud funny then suddenly, unexpectedly and profoundly moving, wistful and touching: a homage to a place, to magical moments in time. An utter joy and a treat to read from the first to last pages' James Holland, author of Brothers in Arms

..".offers a set of unique perspectives on how travel writers have imagined, experienced and represented other people and other places. It shifts attention to the voices and agency of travellers from the Balkans and the ways in which they have experienced and described the sometimes strange and exotic West... Most fascinating the multi-faceted trajectories of expectations, perceptions and imageries which reverse the standard hegemonic gaze from West to East." . Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London

In writings about travel, the Balkans appear most often as a place travelled to. Western accounts of the Balkans revel in the different and the exotic, the violent and the primitive traits that serve (according to many commentators) as a foil to self-congratulatory defi nitions of the West as modern, progressive and rational. However, the Balkans have also long been travelled from. The region's writers have given accounts of their travels in the West and elsewhere, saying something in the process about themselves and their place in the world. The analyses presented here, ranging from those of 16th-century Greek humanists to 19th-century Romanian reformers to 20th-century writers, socialists and 'men-of-the-world', suggest that travellers from the region have also created their own identities through their encounters with Europe. Consequently, this book challenges assumptions of Western discursive hegemony, while at the same time exploring Balkan 'Occidentalisms'.

Back in Paperback, with a new afterword by the author Of the thru-hikers who set out to walk the entire Appalachian Trail, most don't make it. Robert Rubin's chances didn't look good. Thirty-eight years old, dispirited, and burned out by a job he no longer loved, he decided to leave mortgage and wife and cul-de-sac life behind for a journey that could take half a year--or perhaps never end. On the trail's wooded ridges, Rubin found himself part of a strange vagrant culture of pilgrims and dropouts, a world with its own rules and rituals. With eloquence and humor, he recounts his trek--the people he met, the landscapes he passed through, the spiritual and physical endurance involved (despite a diet heavy in Snickers bars and macaroni & cheese, he lost seventy-five pounds along the way). "On the Beaten Path" is a wise, witty look at one of the few remaining pilgrimages in our disillusioned age.

Research on pilgrimage has traditionally fallen across a series of academic disciplines - anthropology, archaeology, art history, geography, history and theology. To date, relatively little work has been devoted to the issue of pilgrimage as writing and specifically as a form of travel-writing. The aim of the interdisciplinary essays gathered here is to examine the relations of Christian pilgrimage to the numerous narratives, which it generates and upon which it depends. Authors reveal not only the tensions between oral and written accounts but also the frequent ambiguities of journeys - the possibilities of shifts between secular and sacred forms and accounts of travel. Above all, the papers reveal the self-generating and multiple-authored characteristics of pilgrimage narrative: stories of past pilgrimage experience generate future stories and even future journeys.

Simon Coleman moved to Sussex University in 2004, having spent 11 years at Durham University as Lecturer and then Reader in Anthropology, and Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health.

John Elsner is Senior Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

With his hands gripping the handlebars and feet on the pedals, Sylvester has given BMX riding new zest as he embraces life to the fullest and lives out his imagination. Sylvester sets an exciting cadence from the start: jumping out of a plane with his BMX bike in hand into the Dubai desert. It s stunts like this that make it easy to understand how this young BMXer from Queens, New York, has redefined the sport on his own terms and become one of the most recognizable faces in the sports world along the way. Inspired by his globally acclaimed digital film series, GO, this book showcases Sylvester s adventures through dynamic photos and video stills of adventures that aren t possible without his bike, which is never far and incorporated into his journey in unexpected ways. Sylvester s fearless mindset is demonstrated during his various travel undertakings: sumo wrestling in Tokyo, fencing at Somerset House in London, and racing Ferraris along the Malibu coast. Nigel Sylvester: GO includes many of Sylvester s friends, such as Super Bowl champion wide receiver Victor Cruz, DJ Khaled, celebrity jeweller Greg Yuna, Steve Aoki, and NBA champion Nick Young, among others. Nigel s story captures his thrilling adventures in cities around the globe from his point of view with unapologetic grace and style.

This beautiful and inspiring book tells the stories of 80 birds around the world: from the Sociable Weaver Bird in Namibia which constructs huge, multi-nest 'apartment blocks' in the desert, to the Bar-headed Goose of China, one of the highest-flying migrants which crosses the Himalayas twice a year. Many birds come steeped in folklore and myth, some are national emblems and a few have inspired scientific revelation or daring conservation projects. Each has a story to tell that sheds a light on our relationship with the natural world and reveals just how deeply birds matter to us.

In this series of deft and beautifully written essays, conservationist Stephen Spear and journalist Janice Riley chronicle a year of cultivating blueberries on Cape Cod's Hokum Rock Farm. Spear's family has owned the farm since 1973 and began cultivating blueberries exclusively in 1986, selling thousands of pints each season. The photographs and stories, a blend of nature writing, personal reflection, and practical knowledge, inspire thoughts on the reasons farming is important and the ways we find meaning in the natural world. Learn about the history of blueberry cultivation, the biodiverse flora and fauna on the farm, and facts about blueberries. Also try out the mouth-watering recipes such as lemon pound Bundt cake with blueberries, easy graham crust blueberry pie, and blueberry-cranberry cobbler. Fans of stories about the natural world, farming, or simply Cape Cod, will appreciate this celebration of blueberries and a life lived close to the earth.

The Beagle Diary was used to write Darwin's famous book 'Voyage of the Beagle' (1839). The narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836. Darwin describes each day of the voyage, some in intimate detail, during the Beagle's circumnavigation of the globe.

By a winner of the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel Writing "Sayarer is a precise and passionate writer . . . We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLARE On the eve of its centenary year and elections that will shape the coming generations, Julian Emre Sayarer sets out to cycle across Türkiye, from the Aegean coast to the Armenian border. Meeting Turkish farmers and workers, Syrian refugees and Russians avoiding conscription, the journey brings to life a living, breathing, cultural tapestry of the place where Asia, Africa and Europe converge. The result is a love letter to a country and its neighbours - one that offers a clear-eyed view of Türkiye and its place in a changing world. Yet the route is also marked by tragedy, as Sayarer cycles along a major fault line just months before one of the most devastating earthquakes in the region's modern history. Always engaged with the big historical and political questions that inform so much of his writing, Sayarer uses his bicycle and the roadside encounters it allows to bring everything back to the human level. At the end of his journey we are left with a deeper understanding of the country, as well as the essential and universal nature of political power, both in Türkiye and closer to home.

This new book of essays from the author of Wild tracks the turning light of the day and seasons, an almanac of the turning times. Beginning in night and winter, it moves to dawn and spring, then noon and summer and finally evening and autumn. Set partly at the author's home in Wales, the book journeys widely, searching for a dead father in Prague, listening to the Sky-Grandmothers of Mexican myth and staying with the people of West Papua who, when they know they will fall over laughing, lie down first. It asks: what is the real gift of the misunderstood Goddess Nemesis? Why should flowers be prescribed as medicine? What do male zebra finches dream of? Where do the sands of time run fastest, and how is that connected to the age of anxiety? It explores the dawn chorus; the tradition of sacred hospitality; dust from the time before the sun even existed; the twilight time of the trickster and the daily rituals of morning. In all of these it asks: why does light, through the hours of the day and the seasons of the year, affect us? Griffiths concludes this extraordinary collection by deciding that light is in fact how we think.

Seven years after her mother's death, Leonie Charlton is still gripped by memories of their fraught relationship. In May 2017, Leonie trekked through the Outer Hebrides in the company of a friend and their Highland Ponies in search of closure. When Leonie's pony has a serious accident, she begins to realise that finding peace with her mother is less important than letting go. Leonie Charlton blends travel and nature writing with intimate memoir in this beautifully written account of grief and acceptance.

Originally published in 1965, it is the diary of her bicycle trek from Dunkirk, across Europe, through Iran and Afghanistan, over the Himalayas to Pakistan and India. Murphy's immediate rapport with the people she alights among is vibrant and appealing and makes her travelogue unique. Venturing aloneaccompanied only by her bicycle, which she dubs Rozthe indomitable Murphy not only survives daunting physical rigors but gleans considerable enjoyment in getting to know peoples who were then even more remote than they are now.--Publishers Weekly. "This book recounts a trip, taken mostly on bicycle, by a gritty Irishwoman in 1963. Her route was through Yugoslavia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and ended in New Delhi. She carried a pistol, got sunstroke, and suffered the usual stomach disorders. She endured bad accommodations but reaped much local hospitality, too, including a dinner with the Pakistani president. Most of the book concerns the high mountain country of Afghanistan and Pakistan...A spirited account."--Library Journal.

Read the stories of several amazing characters as they pass through a mountain store and hostel on the Appalachian Trail. Before he was an award-winning author, Winton Porter found success in the outdoor retail business. His family enjoyed living wherever his work took him: Atlanta, Chicago, Salt Lake City. But like so many others, he often stared out the window, wanting something different. Eventually, he cashed in his 401k and ransacked his bank account to become a backpack-purging, tent-selling, hostel-running, first-aid-dispensing, lost-kid-finding, argument-settling, romance-fixing, chili-making shopkeeper deep in the Georgia woods, smack on the Appalachian Trail. Nowadays, Winton opens the door to strangers at midnight, doesn't wear clean clothes every day, and sometimes eats Snickers bars for breakfast. He also meets amazing people every day and hears some incredible stories! In Just Passin' Thru, Winton captures the daily reality show of his family's new life at the store, Mountain Crossings at Walasi-Yi. With humor and grace, he introduces an old man who liked to sleep on his roof, an man in his 80s who still hikes just to keep from getting bored, an ex-Navy SEAL who was sometimes mistaken for a homeless person, and so many others. Among the parade of people who are just passin' thru, some show up once and others appear again and again. Either way, the author masterfully introduces them to you in the pages of this remarkable book. Inside you'll find: 20 captivating true stories about real people Photographs that help bring the stories and characters to life Map that shows the location of Winton's mountain store and hostel

A top-class team has formed to honour the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and the Piber Federal Stud with a sumptuous volume on the occasion of their anniversary: Elisabeth Gurtler, Director of the Spanish Riding School, presents the excellence and the unique character of this institution and its rich tradition. The internationally renowned photographer Rene van Bakel has captured the Lipizzaners through the years from birth to their demanding training and the glamorous performances. Sports journalist and horse enthusiast Arnim Basche interweaves expert knowledge and emotion in his texts. And multi-award-winning publisher Edition Lammerhuber - elected Photography Book Publisher of the Year 2014 - provides the elegant design for the book to match both the theme and the occasion.

On May 6, 2014 Ryan Waters accomplished something that has not been replicated since. He and fellow explorer Eric Larsen stood atop the geographic North Pole, after 53 grueling days battling their way over an ever-melting sheet of ice that fought against them the entire way. By reaching the pole the two adventurers became the last persons to date to complete an unsupported trip to the North Pole from land. The ice sheet that used to link the Pole to land in Canada, once so thick and sturdy, has so degraded over the last few decades that explorers have had to abandon any attempts to cross it. While reaching the North Pole was monumental for Waters it also was the final piece needed to complete a project that he had been persistently working on for over a decade, the True Adventurers Grand Slam-standing atop the Seven Summits and skiing full length, unsupported and unassisted, expeditions to both the North and South Poles. His accomplishment that day made him just the 9th person and first American to gain entry into this exclusive club. Never one to embrace the easy path, Waters seemed to thrive in battling through whatever the fates threw at him, sometimes even deliberately seeking out struggles. Despite having little experience cross-country skiing, he decided to go to the South Pole. Eschewing the more typical route, he and partner Cecilie Skog completed the first traverse of Antarctica without the use of resupplies or kites. Skiing from Berkner Island in the Weddell Sea, via the South Pole, to the Ross Ice Shelf, the pair skied for 70 days and covered 1200 miles, 9 years prior to the much publicized 2019 "race" across Antarctica. To this day the two hold the record for the longest unsupported crossing of the continent without the use of kites. How Waters ended up standing atop the North Pole on that fateful day is a story of hope, perseverance, faith, and a fair share of dumb luck. From his youth traipsing around the Georgia hills to his time leading expeditions around the Himalayas, including five summits of Everest, Waters has always seemed to stumble into the next fortuitous step of his journey, often ending up in the most unlikely places. This is tempered by the fact that early in Waters' outdoor career, he learned to live by a simple credo: "you have to make things happen for yourself." At the beginning of his climbing career, he was consumed by passion for the mountains, every decision was leading to the next mountaineering challenge. Eventually giving up a stable career as a geologist, he had a self-described "mid 20's crisis," left his 401K and comfortable salary for living out of his truck and 40 dollars a day as a part-time climbing instructor. Following his dream of a life of adventure in exchange for a life of obeying societal norms, he set out to build a mountain resume that would enable him to circle the Earth and work as a mountain guide in the Himalayas and beyond. After almost two decades of hard expeditions around the planet, his experiences include being on a hijacked airplane in Russia, rescue of injured climbers in the Karakoram Himalaya of Pakistan, the Everest Base Camp earthquake disaster, narrowly missing out on the K2 2008 tragedy, near misses with avalanches, the deaths of close climbing partners, close encounters with Polar Bears on the Arctic Ocean, relationships with fellow adventurers, and much more.

'He appeared, without a word, in the tent's entrance, covered in ice. He looked like anyone would after spending over twenty-four hours in a hurricane at over 8,000 metres. In winter. In the Karakoram. He was so exhausted he couldn't speak.' Of all the games mountaineers play on the world's high mountains, the hardest - and cruellest - is climbing the fourteen peaks over 8,000 metres in the bitter cold of winter. Ferocious winds that can pick you up and throw you down, freezing temperatures that burn your lungs and numb your bones, weeks of psychological torment in dark isolation: these are adventures for those with an iron will and a ruthless determination. For the first time, award-winning author Bernadette McDonald tells the story of how Poland's ice warriors made winter their own, perfecting what they dubbed 'the art of suffering' as they fought their way to the summit of Everest in the winter of 1980 - the first 8,000-metre peak they climbed this way but by no means their last. She reveals what it was that inspired the Poles to take up this brutal game, how increasing numbers of climbers from other nations were inspired to enter the arena, and how competition intensified as each remaining peak finally submitted to leave just one awaiting a winter ascent, the meanest of them all: K2. Winter 8000 is the story of true adventure at its most demanding.

_______________ THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER: the remarkable true story of the exploration ship featured in The Terror In the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, HMS Erebus undertook two of the most ambitious naval expeditions of all time. On the first, she ventured further south than any human had ever been. On the second, she vanished with her 129-strong crew in the wastes of the Canadian Arctic, along with the HMS Terror. Her fate remained a mystery for over 160 years. Then, in 2014, she was found. This is her story. _______________ Now available: Michael Palin's North Korea Journals _______________ A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Beyond terrific . . . I didn't want it to end.' Bill Bryson 'Illuminated by flashes of gentle wit . . . It's a fascinating story that [Palin] brings full-bloodedly to life.' Guardian 'This is an incredible book . . . The Erebus story is the Arctic epic we've all been waiting for.' Nicholas Crane 'Thoroughly absorbs the reader. . . Carefully researched and well-crafted, it brings the story of a ship vividly to life.' Sunday Times 'A great story . . . Told in a very relaxed and sometimes - as you might expect - very funny Palin style.' David Baddiel, Daily Mail 'Magisterial . . . Brings energy, wit and humanity to a story that has never ceased to tantalise people since the 1840s.' The Times

This book takes the reader on walks along packhorse routes and bridges of the English Lake District. Walking on Bridges lists and describes the old packhorse bridges. It also contains descriptions of 24 walks over passes used by the packhorses, ten short walks and twelve longer, circular walks which are mainly on packhorse routes.