Book picks similar to
Reading the River: A Voyage Down the Yukon by John Hildebrand
travel
nonfiction
adventure
alaska
Woman Of The Boundary Waters: Canoeing, Guiding, Mushing, and Surviving
Justine Kerfoot - 1986
In 1928, Justine Kerfoot arrived, a Northwestern University graduate headed for medical school until her family lost both their Illinois homes in the stock market crash. Thrust into year-round life at her mother's fledgling summer resort, Justine was confronted with learning survival in the frigid north woods, a challenge she met with extraordinary verve and recounts with great candor and humor in this remarkable book. Kerfoot has paddled all the lakes and streams in this border country, and she knows them well. Her lyrical descriptions of wildlife and seasonal environments express the deep reverence for nature that has become her way of life. In a new afterword, she reflects on the impact of restricted wilderness status on the region - called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness since 1978 - and on her own convictions about people living in the wild.
Running North: A Yukon Adventure
Ann Mariah Cook - 1998
RUNNING NORTH is the true story of how Ann Cook, her husband, George, and their young daughter, Kathleen, moved to Alaska and how their Siberians became the first team from the lower forty-eight states to finish the Yukon Quest. It tracks George on his horrific journey through the Yukon, recording the frostbite, the hallucinations that come with exhaustion, the wolves, and the nights out on the ice at minus ninety degrees Fahrenheit. This is the great story of man struggling against nature and surviving. But unlike most accounts of high adventure that center solely on the adventurer and the quest, RUNNING NORTH is also the story of Ann Cook, who drove the truck and carried the gear and kept the family together. In the tradition of MY OLD MAN AND THE SEA, she tells both stories in simple, elegant prose that reveals the tragedy, joy, and folly that lie on either side of the curtain separating the adventurer from the world left behind. They run up against crazy landlords, win over gruff neighbors, drive a broken-down truck that sucks oil like Alaskans suck coffee, listen to a radio show that keeps trappers in contact with the world, meet mysterious fishermen who appear without notice and disappear without a sign, fight with a young cousin who will betray them in the end, protect their young daughter from the dangers of their new wild world, and stare awestruck at the wide sweep of Alaskan landscape. RUNNING NORTH is the story of two very different adventures on the edge: one among the racers braving the Yukon and the other among the people they leave behind.
A Donkey On The Catwalk: Tales of life in Greece
Marjory McGinn - 2021
Once again there are comical and insightful tales of life in wild and stunning locations.Readers will be further enlightened by the escapades of the unforgettable farmer Foteini: her unique take on life; her outrageous ‘fashions’, including a makeshift shoe design you will never forget, and her ‘haute couture’ offerings for Riko the donkey.As well as tales of the Peloponnese, there are stories from other Greek locations the couple have visited, including Pelion and the islands of Santorini and Corfu. This book also offers a fascinating glimpse into some of the author’s earliest trips to Greece with tales that have not been published before, including a year of teaching English in Athens during a dangerous time of political upheaval; a humorous story of facing up to bizarre religious relics in Corfu; and a long sabbatical in Crete that didn’t quite go to plan, with a hint of unexpected romance in an idyllic setting.This book also includes some of the author's photographs of her travels in Greece.
Raised in Ruins: A Memoir
Tara Neilson - 2020
They were miles away from any neighbors, surrounded on all sides by wolves, bears and other wildlife, entering the world of subsistence living in an uninviting land of dangerous weather and storms; yet the Neilsons were able to make themselves a home where few others would have found possible. Led by a jack-of-all-trades handyman for a father and a mother who was afraid of everything in the wilderness, Tara and her four siblings cleared the rough terrain to build atop the blackened, rusty ruins a new way of life that was completely their own.From a young age, Tara learned that anything was possible, so long as one can imagine it and then make it happen. When given her mother's impractical design of a six-bedroom house, her father picked up his tools and crafted it into a reality. To reach the closest community, they built a wooden boat sixteen feet long for the perilous journey on the water. The Alaska wilds required independence and self-sufficiency from the family, and in return it provided a natural landscape that inspired romantic passion and unlimited dreams. With endless forest on one side and the wide ocean on the other, Tara embraced the lonesomeness of the burned cannery ruins that she called home, and often wondered what it once was with its people inside, their stories, where they went, and what happened to them.Beautifully poignant and completely original, Raised in Ruins escapes into the wilderness to discover a piece of Alaskan history wrapped in an incredible family adventure fueled by love, strength, hard work, endurance, and boundless imagination.
The Coconut Wireless: A Travel Adventure in Search of the Queen of Tonga
Simon Michael Prior - 2021
No idea they’ll encounter an undiscovered tribe, rescue a drowning actress, learn jungle survival from a commando, and attend cultural ceremonies few Westerners have seen. As they find out who hooks up, who breaks up, who cracks up, and who throws up, will they fulfil Simon’s ambition to see the queen, or will they be distracted by insomniac chickens, grunting wild piglets, and the easy-going Tongan lifestyle?
A Hunt for Justice: The True Story of a Woman Undercover Wildlife Agent
Lucinda Delaney Schroeder - 2006
Fish and Wildlife Service. In August 1992, she accepted an assignment that forever changed--and endangered--her life. She posed as a big-game hunter in Alaska in order to infiltrate an international ring of poachers out to kill the biggest and best of that state's wildlife.A Hunt for Justice recounts her dramatic story--a story she was not legally permitted to write about until her retirement in 2004.
Safari Ants, Baggy Pants And Elephants: A Kenyan Odyssey
Susie Kelly - 2017
With her husband Terry, Susie sets off for a holiday touring the game reserves, but what she finds far exceeds her expectations. In this, her seventh, travelogue, she takes readers from five star hotels to luxury tents in the wilderness, and to poverty in Nairobi's slums, describing a journey of joy, excitement, discovery, nostalgia, of new friendships and encounters of the very close kind with Kenya’s majestic wildlife. Forgotten memories come flooding back as she revisits the scenes of her childhood and adolescence, so movingly portrayed in her popular memoir I Wish I Could Say I Was Sorry, many of them changed beyond recognition. Written in her characteristic laid back style, this is a travel tale that will appeal to all those readers who have enjoyed Susie's previous books, as well as anybody who has lived in or dreams of visiting Kenya, the magical land Susie still thinks of as ‘home’. 'Vivid, moving, entertaining. Anybody thinking of taking a safari holiday in Kenya, or who would like to take an armchair safari to Kenya, should read this book.' "Hemingway wrote: 'I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy.' That is how I feel about Kenya. You feel at once insignificant and amazing, just for being here. This magnificent, beautiful country, birthplace of mankind, owner of my heart." Susie Kelly, 2017 WHAT READERS ARE SAYING: 'I’ve just been on a wonderful safari trip to Kenya! At least that’s how it felt. As a lover of all wildlife this was a trip that I could only ever dream about, but this book more than satisfied my curiosity and thirst for knowledge about African wildlife.' MRS BLOGGS BOOKS 'A wonderful & poignant African safari. Being an animal fanatic I enjoyed learning so much about African wildlife from this book and also the incredible people who care for, and protect it' SUSAN KEEFE 'Susie is a great ambassador for Kenya. It’s the best safari experience you are likely to get, without going on safari!' FRENCH VILLAGE DIARIES 'I consider myself rather knowledgeable about wildlife, yet I still found plenty here that was new to me about the animals and the Masai Mara in particular.' ANDREW IVES 'Susie Kelly's books are always a delight to read. The descriptions were informative, insightful and at times hilarious.' 'Wonderful read. I have avidly read each of Susie's previously published books.' 'One of my best reads ever. Cannot recommend this book enough - beautifully written (as always) and having lived in Kenya myself during the same period empathise totally with every word she writes.' 'Personal, Funny, Informative and Memorable! It's so very well-written, so easy to read, so funny and entertaining, so informative and educational.' 'I'm a big fan of Susie Kelly and her travels. Susie - where you going next? I'll be in my armchair right there with you!' 'What a fabulous trip. Delightful.' 'Thoroughly enjoyable as well as being informative. Certainly made me look forward to such a journey some day!' 'Susie Kelly has a wonderful way with words and descriptions and a fantastic sense of humour.' 'More than your average safari. I pre-ordered the book, received it on 6th June and read it the same day...phone off the hook and cup of tea at hand.
Hike Your Own Hike: 7 Life Lessons from Backpacking Across America
Francis Tapon - 2006
You'll start in Maine and walk to Georgia, picking up seven lessons along the way. Each lesson is neatly woven into the fabric of the story.
A Drop in the Ocean
Jasna Tuta - 2018
But this isn’t one of them. Totally free of hyperbole and exaggeration, A Drop in the Ocean is an honest and genuine account of what it is really like to cross a very big ocean, on a very small sailboat, for the very first time...When you raise the sails and head into the unknown, you take on the most fascinating challenge of your life. But you also embark upon a voyage of an entirely different nature. As the initial fear of the unknown slowly gives way to the daily rhythm of life at sea, something entirely unexpected happens. This book is one woman’s attempt to describe the nature and effect of this subtle transformation.
Praise for A Drop in The Ocean
A Drop in the Ocean is a book for anyone curious to read an honest account of how challenging, inspiring, and ultimately rewarding it can be to venture across the open water with only your vessel, experience, and wits to guide you. Along with describing the realities of exhaustion, seasickness, and bruises, Jasna also interweaves moments of magic and this why her book is so important. A Drop in the Ocean doesn’t romanticize an ocean crossing but shows both its difficulty and also its enchantment. These are the pleasures of ocean sailing that can only be experienced firsthand or read about in books like Jasna’s. The beauty of the ocean is not just found when the wind and waves are perfect and in the right direction, but in what the sea forces you to do when they are not. Jasna’s personal realizations and her final sense of achievement are a straightforward, honest, and accurate portrayal of a first time ocean voyage. There are still places in the world that many people will never visit, like the famed islands of the South Pacific and luckily there are also still people in the world adventurous enough to travel across an ocean by sailboat to experience them firsthand and share those stories with us.. Charlotte Kaufman, Author, sailor and founder of Women Who Sail.
Running Hot
Lisa Tamati - 2009
Lisa Tamati was the first New Zealand woman to compete in the race alongside such legends of the sport as Dean Karnazes and David Goggins. But Lisa's story is so much more than that one race. At the age of 19 she suffered a crippling back injury and was told she should give up running. She took that as a challenge and, with her Austrian boyfriend, went on to run, walk, bike, and paddle her way across thousands of miles of Europe, Scandinavia, and Africa before taking on the ultimate challenge—an unassisted crossing of the Libyan Desert. What happened in that desert would change the course of Lisa's life and instill in her a love of desert running. Running Hot is a story of a life lived to the max—a story of challenges, setbacks, heartbreaks, and triumph.
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.
Buen Camino!
Natasha Murtagh - 2011
Peter and Natasha's journey starts in drizzle and wind as they scale Croagh Patrick, Ireland's Holy Mountain in Mayo, before setting off immediately afterwards for the Pyrenees in France. There, they start walking the Camino, the Way of St James, to Santiago de Compostela. It is a grueling trek over three mountain ranges; through fields and valleys, villages, towns and cities, to the lush countryside and forests of Galicia, and eventually to Finisterre, the pagan end of the earth. Along the way, they meet a motley collection of other pilgrims with whom they laugh, cry and above all have fun amid moments of high drama, exhilaration and sometimes exhaustion. They run with the bulls and parade in a fiesta; they pray with the faithful, and explore the Camino's rich Christian and pagan history; they stay in its sometimes Spartan pilgrim hostels and appreciate the richness of living simply. "A lovely book for those who have done the Camino, or like me, are thinking of doing it."--The Dubliner. "This is a travel book, certainly, but it is much much, more than that. It's about family and friendship and camaraderie, and it is, in the end, a wonderfully warm story about the bond between a loving adventurous father and his daughter ready to embrace the world."-The Irish Mail on Sunday.
In Patagonia
Bruce Chatwin - 1977
Fueled by an unmistakable lust for life and adventure and a singular gift for storytelling, Chatwin treks through “the uttermost part of the earth”— that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, where bandits were once made welcome—in search of almost forgotten legends, the descendants of Welsh immigrants, and the log cabin built by Butch Cassidy. An instant classic upon its publication in 1977, In Patagonia is a masterpiece that has cast a long shadow upon the literary world.
Alone in the Fortress of the Bears: 70 Days Surviving Wilderness Alaska: Foraging, Fishing, Hunting
Bruce Buck Nelson - 2015
He would return in September. For the next ten weeks my survival would depend on foraging, hunting and fishing on an island I would share with 1,600 brown bears. This is my story of hunger and solitude, salmon fishing and stormy seas, torrential rains and mountain sunsets, giant halibut and deer hunting, campfires and killer whales. Illustrated with nearly fifty photos and a map.
The Last Traverse; Tragedy and Resilience in the Winter Whites
Ty Gagne - 2020
More than a cautionary tale, it is a tribute to all the volunteers and professionals who willingly put themselves in harm's way to save lives. This is a must read for anyone who hikes the Whites."In his first book, Where You'll Find Me: Risk, Decisions, and the last Climb of Kate Matrosova, Ty Gagne established his credentials as a writer of well-researched and objective analysis of mountain accidents. Moreover, Where You'll Find Me reads like a novel, a book I couldn't put down. In his latest book, The Last Traverse, Gagne takes the combination of analysis and storytelling to a new level in a tale of survival and tragedy in the White Mountains."-Mark Synnott, author of The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life and The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest