Top ten travel books
Jim Millward May 9th, 2008
It’s Friday, it’s 5 o’clock and time for some inane ramblings. In High Fidelity style here’s a top ten of travel books. Obviously a completely subjective and personal list borne out of all sorts of prejudices and complete lack of literary nous. Steered clear of mountaineering books and news books (which therefore excludes the likes of John Simpson’s books). Some authors would have several entries but I’ve applied the one book rule. One variable is how recently I read them, if it was years ago then less likely to make an appearance unless it made a stunning impression, enough rambling, here goes:
- Congo Journey - Redmond O’Hanlon (Could have picked any of his books, but will restrict choice to one.)
- A short walk in Hindu Kush - Eric Newby
- In Siberia - Colin Thubron
- Under a sickle moon: travels in Afghanistan - Peregrine Hodson
- A Reed Shaken by the Wind: Travels Among the Marsh Arabs of Iraq - Gavin Maxwell (Arguably better than Wilfred Thesiger’s own writings from this part of the world)
- Zanzibar Chest - Aidan Hartley (pushing the limits to be classified but a great read)
- Dark Star Safari - Paul Theroux (had to be one)
- Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran - Jason Elliot
- One foot in Laos - Dervla Murphy (but take you pick from any)
- A book about Papua New Guinea that was published by Lonely Planet. Can’t remeber the name of the book or author but it was good! If anyone ever reads this and thinks of the name. Thanks: It’s ‘Islands in the Clouds’ by Isabella Tree about Highlands of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya.
- Grains of Sand - Martin Buckley (know that’s 11 but just remembered this one about deserts)
- In Patagonia - Bruce Chatwin
Stopping now as thinking of others.
Worst book: ‘Reality was a bug that bit me in the Galapagos’ - garbage
The Audley Africa Safari team sponsors a baby elephant ‘Shimba’ who lost her mother to natural causes when she was six weeks old; and a baby rhino ‘Maxwell’ who was found abandoned when he was just one. Our sponsorship helps the trust to nurture the orphans, pay for the keepers and pay for the upkeep of all the orphans. We also encourage lots of our clients to visit the elephant orphanage when they are transiting through or staying in Nairobi.
My experience of having BBQ’s in the UK is always tainted by the fact that each time I organise one in advance, it usually ends up raining on the day. I set the date, invite my friends, get in all the food and beers and invariably wake up on the “Big Day” to heavy rain clouds and the prospect of entertaining 30 people inside, cooking unfeasibly large volumes of food in my tiny kitchen. There are notable exceptions of course, but they are definitely in the minority!
A recent article in the Sunday Times has outlined the history of Audley Travel from its humble beginnings. Inspired by a post-university trip around the world, Craig Burkinshaw set out to take others to the places he had visited in Vietnam. Initially offering himself as a guide for free as long as his companions paid for his travel, Craig soon realised that he might be able to make a business out of his passion.
We appear to use tonnes of paper in our brochures and other printed material, however, as a company we are actually very paper efficient. Our brochures are produced in very low volumes and have a long ’shelf life’ because they don’t contain departure dates or prices. We have found that we are printing less brochures per region than we were five years ago.
Over the Easter weekend I went down to London to catch up with some friends. Since I love all things Japanese I had persuaded them to come with me to watch a performance by the Yamato drummers of Japan, who are currently touring the UK.