What does it mean to be an explorer in the twenty-first century? This is the story of what first led Benedict Allen to head for the farthest reaches of our planet - at a time when there were still valleys and ranges known only to the remote communities who inhabited them. It is also the story of why, thirty years later, he is still exploring. Benedict decides to journey back to a clouded mountain in New Guinea to find an old friend called Korsai, and to fulfil a promise they made as young men. Explorer tells the story of what it means to be 'lost' and 'found'.

Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer Travel opens our minds to the world; it helps us to embrace risk and uncertainty, overcome challenges and understand the people we meet and the places we visit. But what happens when we arrive home? How do our experiences shape us? The Kindness of Strangers explores what it means to be vulnerable and to be helped by someone we've never met before. Someone who could have walked past, but chose not to. This is a collection of stories by accomplished travellers and adventurous souls like Sarah Outen, Benedict Allen, Ed Stafford and Al Humphreys, who have completed daring journeys through challenging terrain, adventuring from the Calais Jungle to the Amazon, from Land's End to the Gobi Desert, from New Guinea to Iran and many other places in between. Each has a story to tell of a time when they were vulnerable, when they were in need and a kind stranger came to their rescue. These are stories that make our hearts grow, stories that will restore our faith in the world and remind us that, despite what the media says, the world isn't a scary place - rather, it is filled with Kind Strangers just like us. All royalties go directly to fund Oxfam's work with refugees.

Why do explorers put themselves in dangerous situations? And, once the worst possible situation occurs, how do they find the resources to survive? In answering these questions, Benedict Allen weaves a series of tales from his own experience as well as that of other explorers including Columbus, Cortez, Scott, Shakelton, Stanley, Livingstone and their modern counterparts: Joe Simpson and Ranulf Fiennes.

Since the 1980s, Benedict Allen has traversed the globe in the enquiring spirit of the great Victorian explorers, pitting himself against nature and frequently hostile environments. On each of his expeditions, which generally involve daunting months alone with the world's remotest "tribal" peoples, he has turned his experiences into a publication that has enriched the reader's understanding of places that would otherwise remain inacessible to surely even the most hardy traveller. The world is brimming with legends of missing links, from Yeti to Big-Foot. It was these kinds of strange travellers' tales that lured Benedict Allen to the vast green island of Sumatra, in this exploration of myth, reality, and our place in the great scheme of things. His inspiration was Theodore Hull, a muscular octogenarian survivor of Japanese prison camps, who encouraged him to set out on the trail of the lost ape-men known as the Gugu. Through a tangle of folktales, Allen found the aboriginal Kubu people, who offered him guidance into the highlands where the ferocious ape-people were said to gibber and screech all night long. And so, knowing that to find the last of the black-manned ape-men would add

What does it mean to be an explorer in the twenty-first century? Explorer is the story of what first led Benedict Allen to head for the farthest reaches of our planet - at a time when there were still valleys and ranges known only to the remote communities who inhabited them. It is also the story of why, thirty years later, he is still exploring. It's the story of a journey back to a clouded mountain in New Guinea to find a man called Korsai who had once been a friend, and to fulfil a promise made as young men. It is also a story of what it is to be 'lost' and 'found'. Honest, sensitive and packed with insight, in Explorer Allen considers the lessons he has learnt from his numerous expeditions - most importantly, from the communities he has encountered and that he has spent so much of his life immersed in. 'To me personally, exploration isn't about planting flags, conquering Nature, or going somewhere in order to make a mark - it's about the opposite. It's about opening yourself up, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, and letting the place and people make their mark on you.'

This is the story of Benedict Allen's extraordinary quest to immerse himself in the heart of New Guinea, and learn the secrets of the people's harmonious communion with the forest. Living among missionaries in West Papua, he heard talk of the mysterious Obini, and set out on an arduous journey to meet them - only to find himself fleeing for his life in the jungle. Undeterred, he sought out members of a tribal crocodile cult who would permit him to take part in their traditional initiation rites into manhood, and finally became the first white man to be honoured with this privilege. But this was the beginning of a punishing ordeal, as Allen joined his fellow initiates in seclusion for weeks, enduring crocodile markings being carved into their skins, until finally, pushed to the limits of endurance, they came to embody the crocodile spirit.

What does it feel like to walk off the edge of a map? To emerge dazed, dying yet triumphant, from the Amazon? Benedict Allen's anthology of human exploration ranges across various terrains - hot and cold deserts, mountains and plains, jungles and high seas - and presents the words of those who, through the centuries - be they Vikings or missionaries, conquistadors or botanists - have set off into 'the unknown'. 'Immaculately edited and shrewdly considered . . . a hugely readable compendium.' Independent on Sunday 'A monumental feat of compilation and editing, and will satisfy every armchair traveller.' Literary Review 'A generous, handsome volume, that will provide hours upon hours of absorption and revelation.' The Times