Don't catch a leopard by the tail, but if you do, don't let it go -
Ethiopian Proverb
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Author Sam McManus has collated 15-years' worth of adventure travel
writing in Ethiopia, Japan, Bolivia, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Iran,
Mongolia, Lebanon, Oman & Costa Rica in this collection of
travel stories, which revolve around a central solo journey
exploring the mountains of Ethiopia over a three-month period in
2015, which led to the founding of sustainable adventure travel
company YellowWood Adventures.
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The most prized form of Ethiopian Amharic prose and poetry, loosely
translated as 'wax and gold' [sam-enna warq], is meticulously
comprised with a focus on the duality of its meanings. The surface
meaning, the wax, must be stripped away to reveal the hidden core
of gold underneath. Ethiopia as a country also encourages you to
look deeper within yourself, to fully understand and appreciate a
deeply rich spiritual significance, that often resonates beneath
simple or plain exteriors.
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This is pure travel writing: "Ethiopia can be difficult, prickly,
cutting, ruthless, unforgiving, infuriating, stark, confused and
complex. Yet, like a densely constructed novel exposing the
fundamental contradictions of human nature, or, say, the bright
plumage of a flowering cactus, when her treasures are revealed,
they are all the more exceptional for the contrasts they manifest.
Rarely do I open a book or read a travel article on Ethiopia that
does not include the famous line from 18th century historian Edward
Gibbon's masterwork The History of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire: 'Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their
religion, the Ethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of
the world by whom they were forgotten.' It still perfectly
encapsulates what makes this land so unique, so much from ancient
times still remaining.
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Although the modern world now has a stable foothold in the cities
of Ethiopia, when one ventures out to the interior, this thin
veneer rapidly falls away, unveiling the unchanged soul of the
nation. One memory illustrates this perfectly: A man and his young
son were ploughing a terraced wheat field below their grass hut
with two oxen. Their field on the edge of a small river, this fell
away off the high plateau in a series of three waterfalls. Their
plough had a small sharp metal tip lashed to its wooden triangular
sides, the long beam and ploughman's handle comprised of
bark-stripped eucalyptus. They wore a few items of Western clothing
- a shirt and a raggedy pair of trousers, both in bare feet. Aside
from these few tiny elements that have seeped in from the outside
world, the scene was timeless. I believe it is the search for this
timelessness that continues to drive me to travel to the wilder
corners of this world."
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McManus grew up in the countryside of Kent in the UK until he
walked out one midsummer morning into a lifetime of travel and
adventure. Travel and books: these two passions have fuelled
journeys to over 60 countries whilst living on four continents. He
has always favoured the road less travelled: whilst living in Japan
he took his tent and surfboard and spent three months
island-hopping down the 1100km of Ryukyu archipelago; in the Amazon
rainforest he spent two weeks with an Indian guide carrying only a
machete, fishhooks, salt, sugar and coca leaves, learning to live
off the land. Be it the highest plateau in Africa, ice-climbing in
the Tian Shan Mountains or exploring the lost assassins' castles in
the Alborz Mountains of Iran; a veritable mountain of banana
sandwiches, history books, novels, travel writings and biographies
always accompany these adventures, and wherever possible a horse or
two. In partnership with www.yellowwoodadventures.com
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