Best of
Travelogue

2019

Journeys in the Wild: The Secret Life of a Cameraman


Gavin Thurston - 2019
    Against a backdrop of modern world history, he's lurked in the shadows of some of the world's remotest places in order to capture footage of the animal kingdom's finest: prides of lions, silverback gorillas, capuchin monkeys, brown bears, grey whales, penguins, mosquitoes - you name it he's filmed it.From journeys to the deepest depths of the Antarctic Ocean and the wide expanse of the Saharan deserts, to the peaks of the Himalayas and the wild forests of the Congo, Gavin's experiences describe much more than just the incredible array of animals he's filmed. He invites you to come inside the cameraman's hidden world and discover the hours spent patiently waiting for the protagonists to appear; the inevitable dangers in the wings and the challenges faced and overcome; and the heart-warming, life-affirming moments the cameras miss as well as capture.

Truck de India!: A Hitchhiker's Guide to Hindustan


Rajat Ubhaykar - 2019
    Perhaps, these are the usual side effects of prolonged riding with the king of the road, I think to myself. But it is only when I fill in ‘truck’ as my mode of transportation in the hotel ledger at Udaipur does the utter ludicrousness of my endeavour truly hit home"Think truck drivers, and movie scenes of them drunkenly crushing inconvenient people to their gravelly deaths come to mind. But what are their lives on the road actually like?In Truck De India!, journalist Rajat Ubhaykar embarks on a 10,000 km-long, 100% unplanned trip, hitchhiking with truckers all across India. On the way, he makes unexpected friendships; listens to highway ghost stories; discovers the near-fatal consequences of overloading trucks; documents the fascinating tradition of truck art in Punjab; travels alongside nomadic shepherds in Kashmir; encounters endemic corruption repeatedly; survives NH39, the insurgent-ridden highway through Nagaland and Manipur; and is unfailingly greeted by the unconditional kindness of perfect strangers.Imbued with humour, empathy, and a keen sense of history, Truck De India! is a travelogue like no other you've read. It is the story of India, and Indians, on the road.

Another Fine Mess


Tim Moore - 2019
    Armed only with a fan belt made of cotton, wooden wheels and a trunkload of ‘wise-ass Limey liberal gumption’, his route takes him exclusively through Donald-voting counties, meeting the everyday folks who voted red along the way.He meets a people defined by extraordinary generosity, willing to shift heaven and earth to keep him on the road. And yet, this is clearly a nation in conflict with itself: citizens ‘tooling up’ in reaction to ever-increasing security fears; a healthcare system creaking to support sugar-loaded soda lovers; a disintegrating rust belt all but forgotten by the warring media and political classes.With his trademark blend of slapstick humour, affable insight and butt-clenching peril, Tim Moore invites us on an unforgettable road trip through America. Buckle up!

National Geographic Atlas of the National Parks


Jonathan Waterman - 2019
    Former ranger and author Jonathan Waterman introduces readers to the country's scenic reserves and highlights the extraordinary features that distinguish each: magnificent landmarks, thriving ecosystems, representative wildlife, fascinating histories, and more. With striking imagery and state-of-the-art graphics reflecting details of wildlife, climate, culture, archaeology, recreation, and more, this lush reference provides an up-close look at what makes these lands so special--and so uniquely American. A heartfelt foreword from National Geographic CEO Gary Knell reminds us how important these lands are to our lives and our national pride.

Roaming America: Exploring the National Parks


Renee Hahnel - 2019
    a seven-month journey to every national park in the USA. Over the course of this epic road trip, they traveled through 39 states, two US territories, drove over 25,000 miles, took 26 flights, and hiked hundreds of miles across some of the most dramatic landscapes on the planet. Roaming America tells their story through breathtaking imagery and musings from the road that will set your wanderlust into overdrive. The Hahnels also share their personal experiences, and give away their insider tips to help you plan your own national parks adventure!“The picture-perfect pair have made a huge name for themselves in the social media world thanks to their jaw-droppingly beautiful travel photos from around the globe.” – Travel + Leisure

Around the World by Bike


Alastair Humphreys - 2019
    

Upon a Sleepless Isle


Andrew Fidel Fernando - 2019
    Civil war, political assassinations, internally displaced communities, industrial-scale corruption. All are Sri Lanka. As are smug bureaucrats, nosy neighbours, and stray dogs with serious axes to grind. Through the eyes of Andrew Fidel Fernando, cricket writer par excellence, both a local and a tourist in his home country, Sri Lanka comes alive as he hurtles down hills in Kandy, breathes in the history at the rock fortress of Sigiriya, grapples with the aftermath of war in Jaffna, and has himself evicted from restaurants near Galle. Weaving through all manner of villages, paddy fields, mountains, jungles and marshlands, and pausing for the pests at grimy guesthouses and the vacationers of luxury hotels, Fernando has the time for every genre of person and wildlife in this chaotic, exquisite, frustrating, bewitching, tumultuous and intoxicating land. Hilariously witty yet wistfully sombre, Upon a Sleepless Isle is the story of a country and a people caught between long historical traditions and global capitalism, resulting in this ingenious paradise.

Spanish Lavender


Joan Fallon - 2019
    Alone in the devastated city of Málaga she makes friends with two young men, Juan, an idealistic Spaniard and Alex, a pragmatic Englishman. Together they make their escape from the war-torn city along the coast to Almeria. Amongst the death and carnage she falls in love with Juan, only to lose him shortly afterwards when he is badly wounded. Believing he is dead she returns to England with Alex, whom she later marries.Seventy years later Kate, Elizabeth´s granddaughter, is left a legacy following the death of her grandfather, a legacy that opens a Pandora´s box of secrets and lies which Kate can only unravel by returning to Spain.

WANDER: A Johnny Wander Travelogue Collection


Yuko Ota - 2019
    WANDER: A Johnny Wander Travelogue Collection is a follow-up to the award-winning Johnny Wander: Out Cats Are More Famous Than Us! Yuko and Ananth go to Japan, India and Hawaii in these never-before collected comics spanning 2012 to 2018!

Wayfaring Stranger: A Musical Journey in the American South


Emma John - 2019
    Classically trained, highly strung and wedded to London life, Emma was about as country as a gin martini. So why did it feel like a homecoming?Answering that question takes Emma deep into the Appalachian mountains, where she uncovers a hidden culture that confounds every expectation - and learns some emotional truths of her own.

Tryst With Reality


Vishal Bhavsar - 2019
    In a matter of 15 days, a normal trip to Himalayas became a ‘journey of a lifetime’ for both of them. Even though they went on this trip with absolutely no purpose or expectation, they were lucky to experience some of the most beautiful moments of their lives. During their journey, they cried and they laughed, they enjoyed while they struggled, they surrendered even though they were vulnerable, they believed while they questioned, and they learned as they realised. However, according to Vishal the most important thing they did during those 15 days was - they allowed. They allowed things to just happen to them by keeping their hearts and minds open to recognize, understand and appreciate the many ways in which the universe was conspiring for them. “Tryst with Reality” can be about friendship, adventure, spirituality, travel, pantheism or self-realisation depending upon which aspect establishes a connection with readers as they read through. Vishal hopes that by the time readers finishes reading the book, it inspires them to start their own inner journey.

Travels in the Land of Hunger: A backpacker's earthbound journey from the East to the West


Domenico Italo Composto-Hart - 2019
    It is also a narrative of finding exotic beauty, inspiration, inner strength, and unexpected love.

Aimless in Banaras: Wanderings in India's Holiest City


Bishwanath Ghosh - 2019
    A few years later, he returns to Banaras to write that book.Plunging into its timeless aura, he roams its ghats and galis, sails through the cool breeze of the Ganga, walks through the heat of funeral pyres. One moment he is observing a sadhu show off his penile strength, in the next he is on a boat with a young woman who has been prophesied to marry seven times; one moment he is in conversation with the celebrated writer Kashinath Singh, who is an atheist, and in the next he is having tea with a globe- trotting priest and a god-fearing doctor ... Ghosh finds a story in every bend as he engages with quintessential Banarasis—their paan-stuffed mouths spouting expletives and wisdom with equal flair—and discovers why they are among the happiest people on earth. Then one evening at Manikarnika, as he emerges from a temple, wearing ash from the cremation ground on his forehead, he finds a bit of Banaras in himself. Aimless in Banaras is not only a sensuous portrait of India’s holiest city but also a meditation on life—and death.

Return to Sri Lanka: Travels in a Paradoxical Land: Travels in a Paradoxical Island


Razeen Sally - 2019
    A travel memoir with deep political concerns, Return to Sri Lanka is a book full of spellbinding beauty and moving insight, from a writer who is a native, a tourist, both and neither.

Adventure by Chicken Bus


Janet Losole - 2019
    Buckling under a mountain of debt, Janet LoSole and her family are at their wits' end. Determined to make a drastic change, they sell all worldly possessions and hit the road. With only a few items of clothing, a four-person tent, and little else, the family visits a sleepy island backwater in Costa Rica to save endangered sea turtles. In Panama, they bounce around like turnips in the back of a vegetable truck to reach an isolated monkey sanctuary. In Guatemala, they scale the ancient Mayan temples of Tikal. In between tales of begging rides from total strangers and sleeping overnight in the jungle with an indigenous family, Janet endorses community-based travel--supporting local businesses and favoring public transportation called chicken buses. She also writes candidly about what it takes to travel long-term with two little girls amid the chaos of border crossings, erratic drivers, and creepy crawlies lurking at the edge of the jungle.

Immersed in West Africa: My Solo Journey Across Senegal, Mauritania, The Gambia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau


Terry Lister - 2019
    This is the powerful on-the-ground diary of one man’s solo journey through West Africa. For roughly 60 days, Terry Lister traveled across Senegal, Mauritania, the Gambia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. What he experienced touched both his spirit and his soul. The ups and downs of travel, the people, the transport, the weather, the food, the haggling...he welcomed it all. From harrowing experiences with border police, to day-long travel on crowded mini-buses, Lister’s accounts of daily life shed light on the real side of Africa, and are sure to both entertain and educate you. Travel is the best educator and Lister shows us that while Africa is still the brunt of many jokes and misconceptions, it is more than worth the visit. If you are someone who’s been a bit afraid to travel into Africa beyond the big tours, this book will inspire you to step out with courage and faith. While your experience will be your own, it is one guaranteed to inspire and motivate you to be the best version of yourself. So let’s step into this adventure together!

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch


John Zada - 2019
    The area plays host to a wide range of species, from thousand-year-old western cedars to humpback whales to iconic white Spirit bears.According to local residents, another giant is said to live in these woods. For centuries people have reported encounters with the Sasquatch--a species of hairy bipedal man-apes said to inhabit the deepest recesses of this pristine wilderness. Driven by his own childhood obsession with the creatures, John Zada decides to seek out the diverse inhabitants of this rugged and far-flung coast, where nearly everyone has a story to tell, from a scientist who dedicated his life to researching the Sasquatch, to members of the area's First Nations, to a former grizzly bear hunter-turned-nature tour guide. With each tale, Zada discovers that his search for the Sasquatch is a quest for something infinitely more complex, cutting across questions of human perception, scientific inquiry, indigenous traditions, the environment, and the power and desire of the human imagination to believe in--or reject--something largely unseen.Teeming with gorgeous nature writing and a driving narrative that takes us through the forests and into the valleys of a remote and seldom visited region, In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond sheds light on what our decades-long pursuit of the Sasquatch can tell us about ourselves and invites us to welcome wonder for the unknown back into our lives.

The Summer Isles: A Voyage of the Imagination


Philip Marsden - 2019
    To reach them, Marsden must head north, sailing a course along the exposed and exhilarating western coasts of Ireland and Scotland. It is a course that has been followed for centuries by explorers and adventurers, fishermen and monks, all drawn to the western seas and their distant horizons. But as much as the journey of men, this book is about the journey of ideas: of nostalgia and a very particular kind of geographical yearning; of a culture and language that has been shaped by its dramatic topography; of the local legend and lore that live on to this day.Combining travel writing, memoir and cultural history, The Summer Isles is a book about the search for real places, for imagined places, and for places that might always exist somewhere in between.

One More Croissant for the Road


Felicity Cloake - 2019
    And France is a country whose roads, so straight and smooth and quiet, seem designed for cycling, and whose hearty provincial cooking, whether that’s Moules Frites or Boeuf Bourguignon, makes the perfect fuel for it. To be hungry in France is to be fortunate indeed.One More Croissant for the Road sees ‘the nation’s taster in chief’ Felicity Cloake embark on the trip of a lifetime, cycling 3,500km across France in search of the definitive versions of classic French dishes. Felicity has long established herself as an absolute authority on everything that is important about food. This lively and charming account of her search for the ultimate Quiche Lorraine, la meilleure Tarte Tatin and a Cassoulet par excellence, culminates in a triumphant two-wheeled tour of Paris’s boulangeries in pursuit of France’s finest croissant. Accompanied by charming line illustrations, each chapter concludes with Felicity putting this new-found knowledge to good use in a new ‘perfect’ recipe for each dish, the conclusion of her rigorous and thorough investigative work on behalf of all our taste buds.

I Told the Witch Doctor: Notes from My Week in Sierra Leone


Matt Freihofer - 2019
    On this trip, he kept a detailed journal in which he highlighted his experiences, from being comically hunted by massive spiders to hearing first-hand accounts of the violent civil war. Five years later, he dusted off his old journal from that adventure and adapted it into this delightfully short novella exploring faith, tragedy, and humor in every day life. But yeah, it's a short one. No refunds.

Where the Wild Cooks Go: Recipes from My Travels in Food and Music


Cerys Matthews - 2019
    You can cook your way right round the world without spending a fortune and without even leaving your home. This is exactly what Cerys Matthews, food enthusiast, finds herself doing, with tried-and-tested recipes from all over the globe. Shall we go Spanish? Japanese? Scottish? Shall I cook inside? Light a fire?? Here, low-meat, vegan and vegetarian options, as well as cocktail recipes, offer up the world as your oyster. Accompanied by stories and folklore from each country, with a wonderful list of tracks to inspire while you cook and eat, this is a failsafe way to keep things interesting in the kitchen. With a recipe base and song list built over years of touring and discovering new places, Cerys has found that a simple list of ingredients and a great playlist on the go means there's always a ticket to ride.

Pardiz: A Persian Food Journey


Manuela Darling-Gansser - 2019
    Having lived in Iran for the first nine years of her life, she returned as an adult to reconnect with the country she remembered so fondly. This book is a celebration of that time; a compilation of memories, stories and beautiful recipes that underline the depth and broad appeal of this great and enduring food culture. In Pardiz, what Darling-Gansser does is show how seamlessly Persian food fits with trends of today: flourishing food markets; the primacy of local ingredients; the health-giving aspects of vegetable-centric dishes; and the joys of a shared table. The latter is a theme in her book – and in her life.In her choice of recipes, she gives a sense of the diversity of Persian food – whether it is served in a restaurant, eaten at home, prepared for a picnic, or enjoyed on the street, the setting can determine what is served. Ultimately, she focuses on recipes that are not too complicated or time consuming – recognising the great virtue that is simplicity. And encouraging readers to embrace the sociability that goes with the food as much as the food itself.

Ghosts In The Wind: In The Footsteps Of Lewis & Clark


Charles Schiereck - 2019
     The #1 New Release in Adventure Travel The garage door cranked open as the engine warmed and I stared out at the black emptiness beyond - the whole of the trip was out there, waiting in the darkness. I pulled on the helmet as my daughter waved goodbye. “When will you come home?” “I’ll be back before the last leaf falls.” For almost eight weeks and 8500 miles, I’d be immersed in American history, geography and culture, following Lewis & Clark to the Pacific, George Custer along Rosebud Creek to the Little Bighorn, exploring the northern lands and working my way to the western sea. There would be time to circle the Great Lakes into Canada, ride the Dakota high prairie, time for Yellowstone, Beartooth Pass, and Mt. St. Helens. I’d roam the Rockies, Bitterroot, Cascades and the Sierra, running down more backroads than I would have thought possible. I had the luxury of getting away alone, immersing myself in the trip, discarding phones & calendars, anything that might distract me from what I was seeing and doing. Excerpts: It was fifteen minutes to Busby, where still following Rosebud Creek, the Seventh Cavalry would set up their final campsite before the battle. For George Custer and about two hundred and eighty men, June 24, 1876 would be their last night on God’s earth. It was so clear. I knew there were drop offs to either side but I could only see the empty darkness and it didn’t help my anxiety. In places where there were no guardrails my imagination ran wild. Except for the stars, I could only see what’s in the headlight – a separate reality contained in the cone of the trike’s high beam. Sometime that night, I crossed over the Beartooth Pass, but never saw the sign. There's driftwood below, piled up on a beach once strewn with bodies from the wrecked Vandalia. Standing at the bottom, boots in the surf, I was astounded at the spectacle before me. I wasn’t prepared for the restless energy, the sounds confined within the cove filling my head. This was a spirit lair, a forbidden cove brimming with life and vitality, but also the scene of tragic and violent death. Ghosts In The Wind - complete with pictures and maps.

In Search of Lost Home


Zubair Arif Shah - 2019
    Life takes a turn when he had to flee Kashmir due to some tough circumstances. This novel is for all of those who are seeking some meaning in their lives. And it is also a story of all the experiences we face in this life, including separation, pain, longing, and a constant search for a place which feels like home. The story of a boy Salik, who ends up leaving his family and his lover Fatimah, embarks on a journey of discovery and encapsulates many mysteries. Fatimah and his life is also a reflection of the deep love they share. It's also a memoir of how they go through the struggle of separation. After decades of distance and wanderings, how does the life of Salik unfold?

Weird Walk: Issue One - Beltane 2019


Owen Tromans - 2019
    For us, walking is an active engagement with the British landscape and its lore.Amongst other things, come with us to uncover some medieval graffiti, have a chat with writer/ recording artist Justin Hopper, take a trip around Avebury’s Neolithic wonderland, absorb some blackened dungeon synth, and meet a Tudor weird walking inspiration.Weird Walk zine is your signpost... keep walking weird.

Weird Walk: Issue Two - Samhain 2019


Alex Hornsby - 2019
    In this issue we will be channelling Samhain, the gateway to the darker half of the year, poised between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It is in this spirit that we explore nature’s bounty alongside forager Adele Nozedar and celebrate an uplifting, eclectic take on folk dance with Boss Morris.We remember a time when Doctor Who went folk horror in a Wiltshire village, while our new Readers’ Vibes section brings some location-specific spookiness to the party. Elsewhere, Justin Hopper discovers uncanny vibes within rural perfection, and Benjamin Myers tells of strange goings-on in Calderdale.The veil is thin... keep walking weird.