Book picks similar to
Africa Solo by Mark Beaumont
travel
cycling
non-fiction
sport
Hungry for Miles: Cycling across Europe on One Pound a Day
Steven Primrose-Smith - 2015
After blowing all his cash on his previous long-distance bike ride (No Place Like Home, Thank God), Steven Primrose-Smith wants to go cycling again. Without the necessary funds, he decides to see if it's possible to travel thousands of miles on a budget of just £1 a day. Against advice, he puts together a team of complete strangers, including a fresh-faced student, a Hungarian chef, and a man with the world's worst bike, the beard of a goblin and a fetish for goats. While cycling from Liverpool to Gibraltar through England, Wales, France, Spain and Portugal, they plan to supplement their cash-strapped diet by fishing and foraging. It's just a pity no one knows anything about either. People quit, nerves are strained, and faces and bikes are both smashed. Will anyone make it to Gibraltar?
Big Sam: My Autobiography
Sam Allardyce - 2015
Before he took the England manager's job in July 2016, he was the second longest-serving manager in the Premier League, behind Arsene Wenger.Over the last 42 years, Allardyce has seen it all. The game he so loves is radically different to that in which he made his debut back in 1973, and in telling his wonderfully colourful story for the very first time, Allardyce talks intriguingly about the changing face of players and managers. His autobiography positively crackles with characteristic insight, honesty and hard-hitting opinions.
Drive-Thru USA: A tale of two road trips
Rich Bradwell - 2014
From feasting on lobster on the rocky shores of Maine, to tracking down America's first pizzeria, no culinary stone goes unturned. On his quest, he finds the origin of hot dogs and the best barbecue in the south, he even tries soup made from peanuts. Joined by his long-suffering wife and haunted by a shambolic cross-country trip with his idiotic friend ten years earlier, he travels the length and breadth of the country, from the Florida Keys to Death Valley to the Rocky Mountains. In between he also falls in love with a clown and escapes alien abduction…ok, so that doesn't happen, but he does win a poker tournament in Las Vegas, hides from forest hippies in Georgia and falls out with an Australian. Rich's hilarious journey is littered with insights into a land best understood with one hand on the wheel and the other on a burger. "Hilarious! Drive-Thru USA is an adventure that makes you want to hit the road and drive." shuttersafari.com "Funny and perceptive, filled with insights and tales of amazing food" thewiredjester.co.uk
Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: An Adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail
Carrot Quinn - 2015
The city makes her feel numb, and she's having trouble connecting with others. In a desperate move she breaks away from everything to walk 2,660 miles from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. It will be her first long-distance hike.In the desert of Southern California Carrot faces many challenges, both physical and emotional: pain, injury, blisters, aching cold and searing heat, dehydration, exhaustion, loneliness. In the wilderness she happens upon and becomes close with an eclectic group of strangers- people she wouldn't have chanced to meet in the “regular world” but who are brought together, here on the trail, by their one common goal: make it to Canada before the snow flies.
Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone
Mary Morris - 1987
As she experiences the rawness and precariousness of life in another culture, Morris begins to hear echoes of her own life and her own sense of deprivation. And she begins, too, to overcome the struggles of the past that have held her back personally; as in the very best travel writing, Morris effectively explores her own soul while exploring new terrain and new experience. By crossing such boundaries throughout the pages of Nothing to Declare, she sets new frontiers for herself as a woman—and as a writer.
Felix the Railway Cat
Kate Moore - 2017
Although she has a vital job to do as 'Senior Pest Controller', Felix is much more than just an employee of TransPennine Express. For her colleagues and the station's commuters, Felix has changed their lives in surprising ways.Felix seems to have a remarkable ability to save the day time and again: from bringing a boy with autism out of his shell to providing comfort to a runaway child shivering on the platform one night. So when tragedy hits the team at Huddersfield, they rely on Felix to pull them together again. But it's a chance friendship with a commuter that she waits for on the platform every morning that finally gives Felix the recognition she deserves, catapulting her to international stardom...Royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to Prostate Cancer UK (registered charity 1005541, SC039332).
Green Hills of Africa
Ernest Hemingway - 1935
Hemingway's well-known interest in - and fascination with - big-game hunting is magnificently captured in this evocative account of his trip. It is an examination of the lure of the hunt and an impassioned portrait of the glory of the African landscape and of the beauty of a wilderness that was, even then, being threatened by the incursions of man.
Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucía
Chris Stewart - 1999
Now all he had to do was explain to Ana, his wife, that they were the proud owners of an isolated sheep farm in the Alpujarra Mountains in Southern Spain. That was the easy part.Lush with olive, lemon, and almond groves, the farm lacks a few essentials—running water, electricity, an access road. And then there's the problem of rapacious Pedro Romero, the previous owner who refuses to leave. A perpetual optimist, whose skill as a sheepshearer provides an ideal entrée into his new community, Stewart also possesses an unflappable spirit that, we soon learn, nothing can diminish. Wholly enchanted by the rugged terrain of the hillside and the people they meet along the way—among them farmers, including the ever-resourceful Domingo, other expatriates and artists—Chris and Ana Stewart build an enviable life, complete with a child and dogs, in a country far from home.
Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide
Peter Allison - 2007
Peter Allison gives us the guide’s-eye view of living in the bush, confronting the world’s fiercest terrain of wild animals and, most challenging of all, managing herds of gaping tourists. Passionate for the animals of the Kalahari, Allison works as a top safari guide in the wildlife-rich Okavango Delta. As he serves the whims of his wealthy clients, he often has to stop the impulse to run as far away from them as he can, as these tourists are sometimes more dangerous than a pride of lions. No one could make up these outrageous-but-true tales: the young woman who rejected the recommended safari-friendly khaki to wear a more “fashionable” hot pink ensemble; the lost tourist who happened to be drunk, half-naked, and a member of the British royal family; establishing a real friendship with the continent’s most vicious animal; the Japanese tourist who requested a repeat performance of Allison’s being charged by a lion so he could videotape it; and spending a crazy night in the wild after blowing a tire on a tour bus, revealing that Allison has as much good-natured scorn for himself. The author’s humor is exceeded only by his love and respect for the animals, and his goal is to limit any negative exposure to humans by planning trips that are minimally invasive—unfortunately it doesn’t always work out that way! Peter Allison is originally from Sydney, Australia. His safaris have been featured in National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, and on television programs such as Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures. He travels frequently to speaking appearances, and splits most of his time between Botswana, Sydney, and San Francisco.
Walking the Amazon: 860 Days. The Impossible Task. The Incredible Journey
Ed Stafford - 2011
Nearly two and a half years later, he had crossed the whole of South America to reach the mouth of the colossal river.With danger a constant companion - outwitting alligators, jaguars, pit vipers and electric eels, not to mention overcoming the hurdles of injuries and relentless tropical storms - Ed's journey demanded extreme physical and mental strength. Often warned by natives that he would die, Ed even found himself pursued by machete-wielding tribesmen and detained for murder.However, Ed's journey was an adventure with a purpose: to help raise people's awareness of environmental issues. Ed had unprecedented access to indigenous communities and witnessed the devastating effects of deforestation first-hand. His story of disappearing tribes and loss of habitats concerns us all.Ultimately though, Amazon is an account of a world-first expedition that takes readers on the most daring journey along the world's greatest river and through the most bio-diverse habitat on Earth.
Sahara
Michael Palin - 2002
This was perhaps the greatest challenge yet: to cross the vast and merciless Sahara desert.Shrugging aside the perils of camel stew and being run over by the Paris-Dakar rally, he travels through some of the most spectacular landscapes on earth. For the Sahara is no empty wasteland, but home to a diversity of cultures whose long history stretches from the time of the ancient Egyptians to the oil-rich Islamic republics of today.
Where There's a Will: Hope, Grief and Endurance in a Cycle Race Across a Continent
Emily Chappell - 2019
On her second attempt, she won the women's event, covering nearly 4,000 miles in 13 days and ten hours, sleeping in short bursts wherever exhaustion took her.In the aftermath of a win that troubled as much as pleased her she worked with Mike Hall, the founder of the race, until his tragic death on the road.Where There's a Will is a book about a normal person finding the capacity to do something extraordinary; the paradoxes of comradeship, competition, vulnerability and will and the shock of grief, combined in a beautifully written and very human story.
Back in the Frame: How to get back on your bike, whatever life throws at you
Jools Walker - 2019
When she started blogging about her cycle adventures under the alias Lady Vélo, a whole world was opened up to her. But it's hard to find space in an industry not traditionally open to women - especially women of colour.Shortly after getting back on two wheels, Jools was diagnosed with depression and then, in her early thirties, hit by a mini-stroke. Yet, through all of these punctures, one constant remained: Jools' love of cycling.In Back in the Frame Jools talks to the other female trailblazers who are disrupting the cycling narrative as well as telling the story of how she overcame her health problems, learned how to cycle her own path and even found a love of Lycra shorts along the way.
Cav: At Speed
Mark Cavendish - 2013
With his self-belief and smouldering competitive fire, Cav has turned the animalistic hunger to win into an art form. As L'Equipe call him -- the Mozart of the 12-wheel cog. Since Cav's first book, Boy Racer, was published in 2009 his career has advanced at a lightning pace. Boy Racer covered his early years to his first experiences in the Tour de France. Since then Cav has clocked up another three record-breaking years in the Tour, becoming the first Brit to win a jersey in 25 years and the first ever to win green. He won green in Spain's Vuelta and in 2011 became the first British cyclist in 50 years since Tom Simpson to win the World Championship road race. And yet every sign points to 2012 being even bigger. On top of another Tour de France we have the massive focus of the London Olympic Road Race -- one of the most eagerly anticipated gold medal chances for Great Britain. There's been a tremendous upsurge in interest in the sport over the last couple of years, mostly due to the success of riders like Cav, and all eyes will be on him as he competes for glory this summer.
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding
Kristin Newman - 2014
Not ready to settle down and in need of an escape from her fast-paced job as a sitcom writer, Kristin instead traveled the world, often alone, for several weeks each year. In addition to falling madly in love with the planet, Kristin fell for many attractive locals, men who could provide the emotional connection she wanted without costing her the freedom she desperately needed. Kristin introduces readers to the Israeli bartenders, Finnish poker players, sexy Bedouins, and Argentinean priests who helped her transform into "Kristin-Adjacent" on the road–a slower, softer, and, yes, sluttier version of herself at home.