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http://library.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/opac/
                                   

Turn right at Machu Picchu : Rediscovering the lost city one step at a time

Citation

Adams, Mark. Turn right at Machu Picchu : Rediscovering the lost city one step at a time,

2011

Annotation

'What happens when an adventure travel expert whose never actually done anything adventurous tries to re-create the original expedition to Machu Picchu?'

In this fascinating historical travelogue, Adams focuses on the work of Hiram Bingham lll, who became a national sensation after he "discovered" the ancient city of Machu Picchu, in July 1911.

Adams follows Bingham's exact footsteps through the Andes Mountains of Peru, with the goal of figuring out how Bingham had gotten to Machu Picchu in the first place and the all consuming attempt to solve the mystery of why such a spectacular granite city had been built in such a awesome spellbinding location. A funny and insightful history/ travelogue adventurous journey, which climaxes with an amazing visual  moment that happens only once a year at Machu Picchu on the morning of the winter solstice.

Not only a good read, but an inspiration to go trekking and find the awesome spellbinding location.

Chasing Kangaroos : A continent, a scientist, and a search for the world's most extraordinary creature


Citation
Flannery, Tim. Chasing kangaroos : A continent, a scientist, and a search for the world's most extraordinary creature.  2007

Annotation
In this combination of memoir, travel, natural history, adventure and evolutionary science, Flannery draws on over 30 years of research and field work to craft a loving tribute to his native land and one of its unique and beloved inhabitants, the kangaroo.
Much of the book is about his travels throughout the Australian continent searching for the fossils of extinct species in remote areas of the Australian outback, where he discovers the fossils of ice age giants, such as the short faced kangaroo and a carnivorous kangaroo.
The accounts are fascinating switching from physical descriptions, to Kangaroo evolution then to reminiscences of his fossil hunting travels, also concerns for the Australian environment and the aborigines.
Flannery personalizes his scientific account with entertaining tales of journeys through deserts and rainforests and encounters with eccentric scientists and native aborigines.
This is a combination of earthly humour, travelogue ( it begins with his youthful attempt to go around Australia on a motorcycle) , natural history, (full of information about the changes brought on by nature and man ), and a  passionate scientific journey to solve the 'roo's origins.

On the Ice


Citation
Legler, Gretchen. On the ice : An intimate portrait of life at Mcmurdo Station, Antartica. 
2005.

Annotation


Antartica is physically and psychologically, the most far flung place on earth. A place few will ever visit.
Legler traveled to Antartica under the National Science Foundation's Artist and Writers Program.
She ventured far beyond Mcmurdo station, from Scott and  Shackelton's original huts to Sile Dome, where scientists collect ice cores to study climate change. The books strengths are the attention to detail and Legler's ability to explain the history and science of Antarctica in a lyrical - poetic style.
Gretchens descriptions of the past are fascinating as she explores Scott's Cape Evans hut, the Antarctica's blue ice, penguins, and the requisite bulky clothing, as well as covering the people employed in all facets of the stations operations and their coping with isolation in their own ways. 
The result is a vivid sensuous travelogue book and a love story.
Legler begins a relationship with Ruth, an electrician and her thoughts on their romance provide insight into her motivations to make the journey, illuminating her Antarctic discoveries, resulting in a perfect combination of nature writing and memoir.

Mcmurdo Station -  Antartica

  Call of the wild

Citation

London, Jack. Call of the wild

1903.

Annotation

Jack Londons’ 1903 classic survival story, Call of the wild, is one of the most popular and exciting adventure stories of a kidnapped dog and Yukon gold. These latest editions have period maps and photographs with generous and colourfully presented details about the places, the times, the Alaskan Gold Rush of 1986, sled dogs, wolves, enriching the reading experience for young people first encountering Call of the wild.

Buck is a magnificent mix of Saint Bernard and sheepdog and is kidnapped from a sunny domestic home in California and sold to work in the Yukon during the gold rush period. He faces a merciless daily struggle for survival through brutal confrontations with the natural world of the Yukon. The sled dog’s life of struggle transforms Buck into a fierce leader and loyal companion that lead him toward self –knowledge, where Buck unites with a pack of wolves, his primitive ancestors.

Call of the Wild reflects the harshness and the unrelenting struggle for survival with brutal clarity and that it is also possible to attain dignity and nobility in the face of a terrifyingly indifferent world in the remotest parts of the Yukon.

‘The key to his greatness is an adaptability that enables him to survive and finally triumph.’ In Bucks’ heroic triumph over adversity and self growing awareness, young readers can and be inspired and encouraged in their own struggles and growing self awareness.

Into the wild

Citation

Krakauer, Jon. Into the wild,

1996.

Annotation

In April 1992, a Chris McCandless, a young guy from a well-to-do family hitchhikes to Alaska and walks out into the wildness. Four months later, a moose hunter finds his decomposed body. His diary and letters found at a remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, slowly starving, as he mistakenly poisoned himself with eating the wrong berries.

His diary reflects a reckless youthful adventure, wandering the American west

in search of a “raw, transcendent experience”. Chris McCandless had a passionate youthful rebellion against wealth (family) and the desire to return to nature. A confused and reckless soul, he finds solace in wandering the great expanse of wilderness in Alaska, ‘which Krakauer draws on to create his lyrical, mesmerizing testament to McCandless’ odyssey.’ Booklist, Jan. 1996.

A reckless calling into the wild yet self searching, Chris took no map, had no idea about the terrain, he didn’t know the Alaskan rivers became ‘unfordable torrents’ in the summer melt, and his last notes written in a field guide to edible plants reveals the fateful mistake of eating the wrong berries, that were a toxic seed pod causing the inability to digest and fatigue, and so starvation.

Into the Wild is an inspiring, reflective read, as Chris McCandless, a passionate adventurer with all the reckless existential angst of a sensitive youth, is drawn to the majestic frontier of the American far west. As with survival tales, the edge between life and death is always a fine line, and ends with the pathetic twist of fate in him getting the berries wrong.

last days

For more adventures.

http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/

An Imaginary Life

Citation

Malouf, David. An Imaginary Life, London: Random House,1978.

Annotation:

An Imaginary Life is a work of great imagination, original lyrical writing, highly inventive and surprisingly haunting.

The principal character is Ovid, the famous exiled Roman poet who is deeply sensitive, and ‘whose character response to adversity has lyrical and mystical implications.’

Ovid, being a poet, has a wide range of feelings and the first person narrative allows for a depth of intimacy and simplicity.  Although set in the ancient world of the Roman Empire, Ovid is speaking to a modern reader, presuming his written record will be read some centuries later on.

This is a tale of exile, using poetry to make sense of a world however cruel and barbaric and poverty stricken. Ovid for unknown reasons is exiled from Rome at the height of his poetic career, to a small village outpost between the Danube and the Black Sea. He is faced with living in this desolate backwater where the natives do not speak Latin and whose lives are spent barely surviving. ‘We are at the end of the earth. But I am describing a state of mind, no place.  I am in exile here.’ An Imaginary Life can easily be read on many levels. There are some comparisons to the real poet Ovid whose great work the Metamorphoses (c. A.D.8), ‘explores the notion of fluid boundaries between the spiritual, the animal and the human world.’

At the centre of this tale is Ovid’s encounter with a wild boy, brought up among the deer in the snow. It’s freezing and the village is often threatened by wolves and barbarians.

Ovid begins to transform himself through his writing and taking an interest in the community. He speaks simply and poetically of what he has been and what he must become if he is to survive. He is an artist, making shape out of the chaos of his exile and adapting his courage and curiosity into making art out of life. 

Follow the rabbit proof fence

Citation

Pilkington, Doris. (Nugi Garimara). Follow the rabbit proof fence, Queensland, : University of Queensland Press, 1996.

Annotation

This gem stays with you.  In 1931, Molly, 14 and her two younger sisters aged 11 and 8, flee the repressive harrowing conditions of Moore River Native settlement, North of Perth, and walk back 1,600 km to their homeland in east Pilbara. “Long way, alright”. Taken from their kin and land under the cruel assimilation policy, these girls went through hell in settlement life, chains and padlocks, barred windows, horrible food, solitary confinement and not even allowed to speak their language.  Breaking out and on the run these girls walked ‘long way’ 1600km barefoot, following the rabbit proof fence to get back home, with no maps, surviving on bush tucker, and being tracked by native police. This survival journey reveals a past more cruel than we can imagine and these girls did one of the longest walks in the history of the Australian outback, longer than many celebrated explorer heroes and in their bare feet.