Best of
Travelogue

2009

Holiday SOS: The Life-Saving Adventures of a Travelling Doctor


Ben MacFarlane - 2009
    His job is to bring people back to Britain after holiday disasters, gap year crisis, embarrassing incidents on business trips and all the other things that can go wrong when we head off overseas. Holiday SOS is his story -- a year in the life of a very British flying doctor.Follow Ben as he grabs his medical bag and flies to glamorous locations -- helping to pick up the pieces after another holiday emergency. Dramatic, hilarious or wildly unexpected, for flying doctors, emergency medicine doesn't just take place in intensive care wards -- it can happen just across the aisle on your next flight.

Narrow Margins - a laugh-out-loud book about life on the waterways (Narrow Boat Books)


Marie Browne - 2009
    Outdated and in need of a complete refurbishment, Happy becomes their floating home. First they need to learn the ropes and many pitfalls beset their adventures.As they come to terms with living on a narrow boat, readers gain a fascinating insight into life in the slow lane.About the author:Marie Browne is a gently harrassed mother of three who, for the past fifteen years, has been desperately trying to escape the Customer Service Industry. Apart from her husband and kids, the best things in her life are real ale; barbecues; ugly mad dogs that nobody else wants and cream-covered designer coffees. She also has an obsession with shoes but her husband is threatening to get her help for that.

Cycling Home From Siberia


Rob Lilwall - 2009
    . . My thoughts are filled with frozen rivers that may or may not hold my weight; empty, forgotten valleys haunted by emaciated ghosts; and packs of ravenous, merciless wolves."Having left his job as a high-school geography teacher, Rob Lilwall arrived in Siberia equipped only with a bike and a healthy dose of fear. Cycling Home from Siberia recounts his epic three-and-a-half-year, 30,000-mile journey back to England via the foreboding jungles of Papua New Guinea, an Australian cyclone, and Afghanistan's war-torn Hindu Kush. A gripping story of endurance and adventure, this is also a spiritual journey, providing poignant insight into life on the road in some of the world's toughest corners.

A Game Ranger Remembers


Bruce Bryden - 2009
    Bruce Bryden's tales of 27 years in the service of our most famous park make a gripping and entertaining read, abounding with encounters with elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard and rhino, whether darting for research, managing culling operations by helicopter or stalking on foot. In the best tradition of bushveld stories, there is a great deal of shooting, and a fair amount of running away; there are meetings with extraordinary characters among the rangers; memorable gatherings; hilarious mishaps and narrow escapes; and throughout, a great love and respect for both the wilderness and the creatures that inhabit it.

Notebooks from New Guinea: Field Notes of a Tropical Biologist


Vojtech Novotny - 2009
    Wilson as one of the most amazing books I have ever read, this exhilarating volume offers a rare combination of first-rank science and top-notch storytelling. Vojtech Novotny, a world-class researcher and a brilliant writer, works on location in one of the toughest regions of the world--a high-risk locale rife with tropical diseases and venomous wildlife. Moreover, Novotny works closely with the indigenous peoples--natives who still hunt food with spear and arrow--involving them in his research and profiting from their deep familiarity with this rugged landscape. As a result, he has many a fascinating tale to tell, and he is a marvelous storyteller. Indeed, this is an unusual and fascinating collection of almost one hundred brief vignettes, adventurous tales, and reflections that illuminate the native culture and what the West can learn from it. Ably translated by David Short, this delightfully engaging book brings to life--with warmth and wisdom--the place, the people, and the pursuit of knowledge deep in the jungles of New Guinea.

Lost Cities & Ancient Mysteries of the Southwest


David Hatcher Childress - 2009
    This time he is off to the American Southwest, traversing the region's deserts, mountains and forests investigating archeological mysteries and the unexplained. Join David as he starts in northern Mexico and searches for the lost mines of the Aztecs. He continues north to west Texas, delving into the mysteries of Big Bend, including mysterious Phoenician tablets discovered there and the strange lights of Marfa. He continues northward into New Mexico where he stumbles upon a hollow mountain with a billion dollars of gold bars hidden deep inside it! In Arizona he investigates tales of Egyptian catacombs in the Grand Canyon, cruises along the Devil's Highway, and tackles the century-old mystery of the Superstition Mountains and the Lost Dutchman mine. In Nevada and California Childress checks out the rumors of mummified giants and weird tunnels in Death Valley, plus he searches the Mohave Desert for the mysterious remains of ancient dwellers alongside lakes that dried up tens of thousands of years ago. It's a full-tilt blast down the back roads of the Southwest in search of the weird and wondrous mysteries of the past!

Top 10 Singapore


Jennifer Eveland - 2009
    From business travelers with limited sightseeing time, to students with weeks to explore, Top 10 Singapore is the perfect introduction to all the sights, sounds, tastes, and experiences Singapore has to offer.

Qur’an and Cricket: Travels Through the Madrasahs of Asia and Other Stories


Farish A. Noor - 2009
    In attempting to make sense of it all, he ends up confronting his own demons and nightmares. He visits locations where most traditional media cannot and will not go, and most of us would like to avoid even in our worst nightmares. Although he writes with his sense of humour firmly in place throughout, that does not obscure the seriousness of the subject. Quite scary.

My Amalfi Coast


Amanda Tabberer - 2009
    Amanda takes us to the very heart of a region where the splendour of the scenery is more than matched by the warmth and charm of the people.Along the way we are invited to share Amanda's own story: the holiday that led to a love affair, which in turn inspired her to trade a glamorous fashion career in Florence for bare feet, a bikini and a beautiful man in the jewel-like town of Positano. We follow Amanda as she becomes a mother, business owner, and bona fide local, before finally making the decision to return to Australia.Beautifully photographed by Carla Coulson, My Amalfi Coast is a warm and intimate account of one of the world's most spectacular coastal regions, and of a culture that knows how to appreciate the things that truly matter in life.

Birdsville: My Year in the Back of Beyond


Evan McHugh - 2009
    With its ruggedness, inaccessibility and larrikin charm, this small town on the edge of the Simpson Desert has become a symbol of the great Australian outback.What is it about Birdsville that has made it stand so large in our legends? And what's it like to live there amongst the floods and the heat and the dust storms?To find out, Evan McHugh packed up his Sydney home, bought a four-wheel drive and headed off with his wife for a year in the back of beyond. Here, he tells us of the large adventures – midnight desert rescues, aerial mustering on vast cattle stations, relentless heat and massive floods – but also the small details of life in one of Australia's most isolated towns – like driving 700 kilometres to go shopping. As the month fly by, Evan learns about an ancient culture, sees dunes carpeted in millions of tiny wildflowers, and meets the members of an outback community facing extraordinary challenges with quiet determination and buckets of good humour.Birdsville is about breathtaking beauty and harshness of this country, the generosity of its salt-of-the-earth people, and one man's discovery of his own reserves of courage and resilience.

Squatters in Paradise: A Yellowstone Memoir


James Perry - 2009
    Written with unapologetic irreverence, the author also manages to convey the very real affection that park employees feel for their natural environs and the community which forms each season within the borders of this unique and magical place. A must-read for those who have worked in Yellowstone National Park (or anyone who has harbored the idea of taking a break from the "real world" for a while).

Pilgrim in the Palace of Words: A Journey Through the 6,000 Languages of Earth


Glenn Dixon - 2009
    Some six thousand languages are still spoken on the planet, and author Glenn Dixon – an expert is socio-linguistics and a tireless adventurer – travels to the Earth’s four corners to explore the way these languages create and mould societies.As one philosopher said, languages are Houses of Being. After doing graduate work in linguistics, Dixon wanted to visit these houses or "palaces" himself – to stroll along their sidewalks, knock on their doors, and peek in their windows. He wanted to see what they were hiding in their basements … even if it meant a little bit of trouble. In some cases, a whole lot of trouble! Join him on his adventure as, with wit and humour, he works toward a real understanding of how and why we communicate the way we do in the Global Village.