Author: Levison Wood
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802190685
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 455
Book Description
The explorer and author of Walking the Americas and Walking the Himalayas delivers “a bold travelogue, illuminating great swathes of modern Africa” (Kirkus Reviews). Starting in November 2013 in a forest in Rwanda—where a modest spring spouts a trickle of clear, cold water—writer, photographer, and explorer Levison Wood set forth on foot, aiming to become the first person to walk the entire length of the fabled river. He followed the Nile for nine months, over 4,000 miles, through six nations—Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, the Republic of Sudan, and Egypt—to the Mediterranean coast. Like his predecessors, Wood camped in the wild, foraged for food, and trudged through rainforest, swamp, savannah, and desert, enduring life-threatening conditions at every turn. He traversed sandstorms, flash floods, minefields, and more, becoming a local celebrity in Uganda, where a popular rap song was written about him, and a potential enemy of the state in South Sudan, where he found himself caught in a civil war and detained by the secret police. As well as recounting his triumphs, like escaping a charging hippo and staving off wild crocodiles, Wood’s gripping account recalls the loss of Matthew Power, a journalist who died suddenly from heat exhaustion during their trek. As Wood walks on, often joined by local guides who help him to navigate foreign languages and customs, Walking the Nile maps out African history and contemporary life. “Woods emerges as a dutiful and brave guide.”—Los Angeles Times “Many have attempted this holy grail of an expedition—so I admire Lev’s determination and courage to pull this off.”—Bear Grylls “A brilliant book.”—Financial Times
Walking The Himalayas
Author: Levison Wood
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316352411
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 291
Book Description
Following his trek along the length of the Nile River, explorer Levison Wood takes on his greatest challenge yet: navigating the treacherous foothills of the Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range. Praised by Bear Grylls, Levison Wood has been called "the toughest man on TV" (The Times UK). Now, following in the footsteps of the great explorers, Levison recounts the beauty and danger he found along the Silk Road route of Afghanistan, the Line of Control between Pakistan and India, the disputed territories of Kashmir and the earth-quake ravaged lands of Nepal. Over the course of six months, Wood and his trusted guides trek 1,700 gruelling miles across the roof of the world. Packed with action and emotion, Walking the Himalayas is the story of one intrepid man's travels in a world poised on the edge of tremendous change.
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316352411
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 291
Book Description
Following his trek along the length of the Nile River, explorer Levison Wood takes on his greatest challenge yet: navigating the treacherous foothills of the Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range. Praised by Bear Grylls, Levison Wood has been called "the toughest man on TV" (The Times UK). Now, following in the footsteps of the great explorers, Levison recounts the beauty and danger he found along the Silk Road route of Afghanistan, the Line of Control between Pakistan and India, the disputed territories of Kashmir and the earth-quake ravaged lands of Nepal. Over the course of six months, Wood and his trusted guides trek 1,700 gruelling miles across the roof of the world. Packed with action and emotion, Walking the Himalayas is the story of one intrepid man's travels in a world poised on the edge of tremendous change.
Walking the Americas
Author: Levison Wood
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN: 0802165648
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
A trek through Central America from the author of Walking the Himalayas, “just the kind of guy you want with you on an adventure” (The Washington Post). Beginning in the Yucatán—and moving south through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama—Wood’s journey takes him from sleepy barrios to glamorous cities to Mayan ruins lying unexcavated in the wilderness. Wood encounters indigenous tribes in Mexico, revolutionaries in a Nicaraguan refugee camp, fellow explorers, and migrants heading toward the United States. The relationships he forges along the way are at the heart of his travels—and the personal histories, cultures, and popular legends he discovers paint a riveting history of Mexico and Central America. While contending with the region’s natural obstacles like quicksand, flashfloods, and dangerous wildlife, he also partakes in family meals with local hosts, learns to build an emergency shelter, negotiates awkward run-ins with policemen, and witnesses the surreal beauty of Central America’s landscapes, from cascading waterfalls and sunny beaches to the spectacular ridgelines of the Honduran highlands. Finally, Wood attempts to cross one of the world’s most impenetrable borders: the Darién Gap route from Panama into South America, a notorious smuggling passage and the wildest jungle he has ever navigated. A Sunday Times bestseller and longlisted for the Banff Mountain Book Award for adventure travel, Walking the Americas is a thrilling personal tale, an accomplished piece of cultural reportage, and a breathtaking journey across some of the most diverse and unpredictable regions on earth. “A thrilling narrative trek . . . [Wood] elevates this already fascinating landscape with lively prose that combines travel journal with history lessons, memoir, and survivalist handbook.”—Booklist
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN: 0802165648
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
A trek through Central America from the author of Walking the Himalayas, “just the kind of guy you want with you on an adventure” (The Washington Post). Beginning in the Yucatán—and moving south through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama—Wood’s journey takes him from sleepy barrios to glamorous cities to Mayan ruins lying unexcavated in the wilderness. Wood encounters indigenous tribes in Mexico, revolutionaries in a Nicaraguan refugee camp, fellow explorers, and migrants heading toward the United States. The relationships he forges along the way are at the heart of his travels—and the personal histories, cultures, and popular legends he discovers paint a riveting history of Mexico and Central America. While contending with the region’s natural obstacles like quicksand, flashfloods, and dangerous wildlife, he also partakes in family meals with local hosts, learns to build an emergency shelter, negotiates awkward run-ins with policemen, and witnesses the surreal beauty of Central America’s landscapes, from cascading waterfalls and sunny beaches to the spectacular ridgelines of the Honduran highlands. Finally, Wood attempts to cross one of the world’s most impenetrable borders: the Darién Gap route from Panama into South America, a notorious smuggling passage and the wildest jungle he has ever navigated. A Sunday Times bestseller and longlisted for the Banff Mountain Book Award for adventure travel, Walking the Americas is a thrilling personal tale, an accomplished piece of cultural reportage, and a breathtaking journey across some of the most diverse and unpredictable regions on earth. “A thrilling narrative trek . . . [Wood] elevates this already fascinating landscape with lively prose that combines travel journal with history lessons, memoir, and survivalist handbook.”—Booklist
Walking Prey
Author: Holly Austin Smith
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1137437693
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255
Book Description
Today, two cultural forces are converging to make America's youth easy targets for sex traffickers. Younger and younger girls are engaging in adult sexual attitudes and practices, and the pressure to conform means thousands have little self-worth and are vulnerable to exploitation. At the same time, thanks to social media, texting, and chatting services, predators are able to ferret out their victims more easily than ever before. In Walking Prey, advocate and former victim Holly Austin Smith shows how middle class suburban communities are fast becoming the new epicenter of sex trafficking in America. Smith speaks from experience: Without consistent positive guidance or engagement, Holly was ripe for exploitation at age fourteen. A chance encounter with an older man led her to run away from home, and she soon found herself on the streets of Atlantic City. Her experience led her, two decades later, to become one of the foremost advocates for trafficking victims. Smith argues that these young women should be treated as victims by law enforcement, but that too often the criminal justice system lacks the resources and training to prevent the vicious cycle of prostitution. This is a clarion call to take a sharp look at one of the most striking human rights abuses, and one that is going on in our own backyard.
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1137437693
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255
Book Description
Today, two cultural forces are converging to make America's youth easy targets for sex traffickers. Younger and younger girls are engaging in adult sexual attitudes and practices, and the pressure to conform means thousands have little self-worth and are vulnerable to exploitation. At the same time, thanks to social media, texting, and chatting services, predators are able to ferret out their victims more easily than ever before. In Walking Prey, advocate and former victim Holly Austin Smith shows how middle class suburban communities are fast becoming the new epicenter of sex trafficking in America. Smith speaks from experience: Without consistent positive guidance or engagement, Holly was ripe for exploitation at age fourteen. A chance encounter with an older man led her to run away from home, and she soon found herself on the streets of Atlantic City. Her experience led her, two decades later, to become one of the foremost advocates for trafficking victims. Smith argues that these young women should be treated as victims by law enforcement, but that too often the criminal justice system lacks the resources and training to prevent the vicious cycle of prostitution. This is a clarion call to take a sharp look at one of the most striking human rights abuses, and one that is going on in our own backyard.
The Last Giants
Author: Levison Wood
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 080215848X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
From the award-winning explorer, “an entertaining summary of what we know about the elephant, and a call to change our behavior to ensure its survival” (Daily Mail). The Last Giants satisfies British explorer Levison Wood’s lifelong desire to learn more about the majestic African elephant. These giants trek through some of Africa’s most magnificent landscapes as they go in search of life-giving waters and pastures. El Nino’s droughts and an insatiable ivory trade have cut African elephant numbers by a third in the last decade alone, and if elephants disappear entirely, Africa’s entire ecosystem could collapse. But Botswana has become a safe haven, where one-sixth of the world’s elephants now reside. Each year their numbers grow and an incredible migration takes place, which Wood witnesses and records. He teams up with local trackers to gain insight into how this iconic species survives, camps out in the wild, meets the people and tribes living on the migration’s path, and joins the park rangers whose job it is to protect these land goliaths, equipped with his “good eye for detail and better ear for dialogue” (The Wall Street Journal). “Adventurer Wood followed elephants on a 650-mile migration across Botswana for a British television program. This fascinating companion volume to that series examines the past, present, and future of the African elephant.” —Library Journal (starred review) “A smart, inviting portrait of elephants from a keen-eyed observer.” —Kirkus Reviews “A rewarding look at the habits and habitats of the African elephant . . . Comprehensively yet accessibly conveying Wood’s lifelong fascination with African elephants, his discussion will appeal to anyone keen on learning more about them.” —Publishers Weekly
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 080215848X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
From the award-winning explorer, “an entertaining summary of what we know about the elephant, and a call to change our behavior to ensure its survival” (Daily Mail). The Last Giants satisfies British explorer Levison Wood’s lifelong desire to learn more about the majestic African elephant. These giants trek through some of Africa’s most magnificent landscapes as they go in search of life-giving waters and pastures. El Nino’s droughts and an insatiable ivory trade have cut African elephant numbers by a third in the last decade alone, and if elephants disappear entirely, Africa’s entire ecosystem could collapse. But Botswana has become a safe haven, where one-sixth of the world’s elephants now reside. Each year their numbers grow and an incredible migration takes place, which Wood witnesses and records. He teams up with local trackers to gain insight into how this iconic species survives, camps out in the wild, meets the people and tribes living on the migration’s path, and joins the park rangers whose job it is to protect these land goliaths, equipped with his “good eye for detail and better ear for dialogue” (The Wall Street Journal). “Adventurer Wood followed elephants on a 650-mile migration across Botswana for a British television program. This fascinating companion volume to that series examines the past, present, and future of the African elephant.” —Library Journal (starred review) “A smart, inviting portrait of elephants from a keen-eyed observer.” —Kirkus Reviews “A rewarding look at the habits and habitats of the African elephant . . . Comprehensively yet accessibly conveying Wood’s lifelong fascination with African elephants, his discussion will appeal to anyone keen on learning more about them.” —Publishers Weekly
An Arabian Journey
Author: Levison Wood
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN: 080214733X
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Book Description
The acclaimed author of Walking the Americas shares his epic journey through the war-torn Arabian Peninsula in this fascinating travelogue. Following in the footsteps of famed explorers such as Lawrence of Arabia and Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer Levison Wood brings us along on his most complex expedition yet: a circumnavigation of the Arabian Peninsula. Starting in September 2017 in a city in Northern Syria, a stone’s throw away from Turkey and amidst a deadly war, Wood set forth on a 5,000-mile trek through the most contested region on the planet. Wood moved through the Middle East for six months, from ISIS-occupied Iraq through Kuwait and along the jagged coastlines of the Emirates and Oman; across Yemen—in the midst of civil war—and on to Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Israel, before ending on the shores of the Mediterranean in Lebanon. Like his predecessors, Wood travelled through some of the harshest and most beautiful environments on earth, seeking to challenge our perceptions of this part of the world. Through the people he meets—and the personal histories and local mythologies they share—Wood examines how the region has changed over thousands of years and what it means to its people today.
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN: 080214733X
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Book Description
The acclaimed author of Walking the Americas shares his epic journey through the war-torn Arabian Peninsula in this fascinating travelogue. Following in the footsteps of famed explorers such as Lawrence of Arabia and Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer Levison Wood brings us along on his most complex expedition yet: a circumnavigation of the Arabian Peninsula. Starting in September 2017 in a city in Northern Syria, a stone’s throw away from Turkey and amidst a deadly war, Wood set forth on a 5,000-mile trek through the most contested region on the planet. Wood moved through the Middle East for six months, from ISIS-occupied Iraq through Kuwait and along the jagged coastlines of the Emirates and Oman; across Yemen—in the midst of civil war—and on to Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Israel, before ending on the shores of the Mediterranean in Lebanon. Like his predecessors, Wood travelled through some of the harshest and most beautiful environments on earth, seeking to challenge our perceptions of this part of the world. Through the people he meets—and the personal histories and local mythologies they share—Wood examines how the region has changed over thousands of years and what it means to its people today.
Who Discovered America?
Author: Gavin Menzies
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062236776
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
Greatly expanding on his blockbuster 1421, distinguished historian Gavin Menzies uncovers the complete untold history of how mankind came to the Americas—offering new revelations and a radical rethinking of the accepted historical record in Who Discovered America? The iconoclastic historian’s magnum opus, Who Discovered America? calls into question our understanding of how the American continents were settled, shedding new light on the well-known “discoveries” of European explorers, including Christopher Columbus. In Who Discovered America? he combines meticulous research and an adventurer’s spirit to reveal astounding new evidence of an ancient Asian seagoing tradition—most notably the Chinese—that dates as far back as 130,000 years ago. Menzies offers a revolutionary new alternative to the “Beringia” theory of how humans crossed a land bridge connecting Asia and North America during the last Ice Age, and provides a wealth of staggering claims, that hold fascinating and astonishing implications for the history of mankind.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062236776
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
Greatly expanding on his blockbuster 1421, distinguished historian Gavin Menzies uncovers the complete untold history of how mankind came to the Americas—offering new revelations and a radical rethinking of the accepted historical record in Who Discovered America? The iconoclastic historian’s magnum opus, Who Discovered America? calls into question our understanding of how the American continents were settled, shedding new light on the well-known “discoveries” of European explorers, including Christopher Columbus. In Who Discovered America? he combines meticulous research and an adventurer’s spirit to reveal astounding new evidence of an ancient Asian seagoing tradition—most notably the Chinese—that dates as far back as 130,000 years ago. Menzies offers a revolutionary new alternative to the “Beringia” theory of how humans crossed a land bridge connecting Asia and North America during the last Ice Age, and provides a wealth of staggering claims, that hold fascinating and astonishing implications for the history of mankind.
America's National Historic Trails
Author: Karen Berger
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
ISBN: 0847868850
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
An inspirational bucket list for hikers, history buffs, armchair travelers, and all those who wish to walk in the hallowed footsteps of American history. 2020 GOLD WINNER OF THE FOREWORD INDIES AWARD IN HISTORY 2021 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD WINNER From the battlefields of the American Revolution to the trails blazed by the pioneers, lands explored by Lewis and Clark and covered by the Pony Express, to the civil-rights marches of Selma and Montgomery, this is the official book of the country's 19 National Historic Trails. These trails range from 54 miles to more than 5,000 and feature historic and interpretive sites to be explored on foot and sometimes by paddle, sail, bicycle, horse, or by car on backcountry roads. Totaling 37,000 miles through 41 states, our entire national experience comes to life on these trails--from Native American history to the settlement of the colonies, westward expansion, and civil rights--and they are beautifully depicted in this large-format volume.
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
ISBN: 0847868850
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
An inspirational bucket list for hikers, history buffs, armchair travelers, and all those who wish to walk in the hallowed footsteps of American history. 2020 GOLD WINNER OF THE FOREWORD INDIES AWARD IN HISTORY 2021 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD WINNER From the battlefields of the American Revolution to the trails blazed by the pioneers, lands explored by Lewis and Clark and covered by the Pony Express, to the civil-rights marches of Selma and Montgomery, this is the official book of the country's 19 National Historic Trails. These trails range from 54 miles to more than 5,000 and feature historic and interpretive sites to be explored on foot and sometimes by paddle, sail, bicycle, horse, or by car on backcountry roads. Totaling 37,000 miles through 41 states, our entire national experience comes to life on these trails--from Native American history to the settlement of the colonies, westward expansion, and civil rights--and they are beautifully depicted in this large-format volume.