Hello again, dear
reader.
It has been said
"that reading is just recreation for intelligence." Which I guess is
one of the reasons why reading is so important because even the most
intelligent beings need to take a break once in a while, which brings us to
today's conversation yesterday we discussed how to plan a Safari to Africa. And
this of course got me thinking about Teddy Roosevelt, and Ernest Hemingway,
both of these famous adventures took many supplies on their from tents and
sleeping bags to ammunition and guns (of course) as well as whiskey and rum and
the supplies necessary to make gourmet desserts. Just to impress a few guests
when necessary, but always high on the list no matter where they were in the
world of the things to bring on Safari or adventure were books! Teddy Roosevelt
even went so far as to have some of his favorite books, covered with pig
leather to keep off the dirt and grime of the wild.
In a previous
conversation we discussed the 50 top fictional adventure books that everyone
should read in their life, we now turn to the true life tales of exploration,
adventure, and survival against all odds that have inspired countless readers
for generations. Unlike their fictional counterparts, these riveting tales of
conquests and ill fated journeys are completely true, and stand as a testament
to man’s unquenchable desire to seek out the unknown, often against all odds
and in the face of unbelievable hardship.
This is not considered a complete list of all the great tales of true life
adventure, and now, we continue on in the world of high adventure…
In this astonishing tale of adventure and survival Roosevelt details his
participation in the 1913-1914 Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition,
undertaken a year after his failed bid for reelection. The team set out to find
the headwaters of the River of Doubt then paddle the river to the Amazon. What
was originally intended to be “zoogeographic reconnaissance” soon turned into a
tale of survival, with turbulent whitewater and peril around every bend of the
river, so much so that it nearly took the life of the “Bull Moose” himself.
Legendary Antarctic
explorer Ernest Shackleton details his own efforts to cross the Antarctic by
sled. Adventure tale turns survival story when Shackleton’s ship, Endurance,
becomes trapped in the ice, where it would remain for ten months before the
hull finally surrendered to the strength of the ice, forcing the men to set out
on foot for a distant whaling station.
A chilling account of
the 1996 Mount Everest disaster as told by John Krakauer, author of Into the
Wild, who witnessed the tragedy unfold firsthand. The onset of a powerful storm
just as multiple teams attempt to summit Everest leads to devastating results,
and those on the mountain are pushed to the brink of their endurance to make it
out alive.
The tragic yet
inspirational tale of Christopher McCandless, a young college graduate who
abandoned a promising future in exchange for a life on the road. Hitchhiking
across North America, McCandless eventually reaches his final destination,
Alaska, where he aims to survive on his own in the wilderness. Krakauer follows
McCandless’s philosophical journey full circle, from rebellious
twenty-something who just wants to escape society to man who is fighting for
his life and realizes that a life without the company of others is not
complete.
“Two years he walks the
earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An
extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta.
Thou shalt not return, ’cause “the West is the best.” And now after two
rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to
kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage.
Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great
White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone
upon the land to become lost in the wild.”
Antoine de
Saint-Exupery, a French pilot better known for his work The Little Prince, was
equal parts adventurer and literary giant. His poetic musings on the life well
lived, combined with his recounting of various calamities he and others faced
while flying the mail over the Sahara and the Andes mountains, makes this one
adventure book no man should be without.
“Nobody grasped you by
the shoulder while there was still time. Now the clay of which you were shaped
has dried and hardened, and naught in you will ever awaken the sleeping
musician, the poet, the astronomer that possibly inhabited you in the
beginning.”
The report of the first
expedition to travel west to the Pacific and return safely, as recorded by the
famous expedition leaders. Follow along in this classic account as new species,
new peoples, and new worlds are discovered.
Stephen Ambrose, better
known as author of the bestseller turned miniseries Band of Brothers, offers an
insightful look into the life and adventures of Meriwether Lewis, co-leader of
the Corps of Discovery, also known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Captain Cook is most
famous for his multiple voyages throughout the South Pacific in the late 18th
century, where he made first European contact with many island civilizations,
including the discovery of Hawaii. In this thrilling retelling of his life and
adventures, Dugard examines Cook’s unequalled rise from peasant to sea captain,
followed by his tyrannical turn and eventual demise.
In this, his first
book, Capstick shows us why he became a legend in the world of big game
hunting. Capstick makes a field of ten foot high grass (and the angry fauna
that no doubt reside there) the most terrifying thing on planet earth, but also
the most exciting.
“If 12,000 pounds of
screaming, screeching, infuriated elephant bearing down on you has somehow
rattled your nerves to the point that you miss the six-by-four inch spot on his
forehead…then you may as well forget it. The most talented mortuary cosmetician
in the world couldn’t rewire you so your own mother would know if you were face
up or down.”
This is the 1907
account by Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson, who was dispatched to Kenya
by the British East Africa Company to build a railway bridge over the Tsavo
River. During construction, workers were regularly killed by a pair of
man-eating lions later known as the Man Eaters of Tsavo, or as the locals
called them, the Ghost and the Darkness. Patterson set out to rid the workers
of this threat, and the story is thrilling.
What type of man was
Christopher Columbus? Eccentric? A madman? The greatest explorer that ever
lived? Draw your own conclusions through an examination of the journals of
Columbus himself, where he chronicles the build up to the initial 1492 journey
and all the expeditions that followed.
“I should not proceed
by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which
direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.”
Cultural explorer
Wilfred Thesiger went to the wild deserts of the Middle East to seek out
respite from the oppression of society. While there he became the first man to
cross the Rub’ al Khali, aka “The Empty Quarter.” The Empty Quarter is one of
the largest sand deserts in the world. Compromising a large portion of the
southern half of the Arabian Peninsula, it is composed of 250,000 square miles
of the most deadly terrain on terra firma. Thesiger set out to cross this great
expanse and planned to create a map of the region during his journey. He
succeeded, crossing the vast unknown of the Empty Quarter not once, but twice,
between 1946 and 1949.
“For years the Empty
Quarter had represented to me the final, unattainable challenge which the
desert offered…To others my journey would have little importance. It would produce
nothing except a rather inaccurate map which no one was ever likely to use. It
was a personal experience, and the reward had been a drink of clean, nearly
tasteless water. I was content with that.”
A masterful description
of the Colorado River as told by the leader of the first expedition to follow
the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. A must for whitewater
river rats.
Hillary’s own account
of he and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s 1953 summit of Mount Everest, the first
confirmed Everest summit ever.
“My solar plexus was
tight with fear as I ploughed on. Halfway up I stopped, exhausted. I could look
down 10,000 feet between my legs, and I have never felt more insecure.”
The bestselling account
of Shackleton’s legendary Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which changed
from an ambitious expedition to a brutal struggle for survival against the
extremes of Antarctica. Lansing’s extensive research into Shackleton’s journals
and interviews with surviving crew members provides thrilling insight into the harrowing
ordeal faced by the men of the Endurance.
Personalities conflict
and wills are tested as an unlikely group of backpackers becomes lost in the
wild in this modern day tale of survival set against the backdrop of the Amazon
rainforest.
When Joe Simpson and
his climbing partner Simon Yates set out to climb the treacherous Siula Grande
in the Peruvian Andes, they knew they were undertaking a very dangerous task.
When an accident sends Joe crashing into a ravine, Simon assumes his death and
is forced to continue on without him. Left alone and critically injured,
Simpson proceeds to crawl down the glacier, arriving barely alive at his base
camp 3 ½ days later. An astonishing tale of one man’s will to survive.
Hailed as the story
that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, this sea story recounts the
experiences of the Whaleship Essex, which was attacked and sunk by an irate
sperm whale in 1820. Following the attack, some of the crew escape to a local
island where they are slowly ravaged by hunger and disease, eventually
resorting to cannibalism to survive.
Alive
by Piers Paul Read
The dreadful account of
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes Mountains carrying a
Uruguayan Rugby team and friends. Alone for seventy two days with no other
resources available, the survivors found themselves forced into eating their
own dead to survive.
Dean King’s
reexamination of the 1815 wreck of the Commerce off the coast of Africa and the
unbelievable hardships faced by crew as they struggled to survive in the deadly
Sahara Desert is one of the greatest survival stories ever told. Keep a tall
glass of water next to you while reading, you’ll never appreciate it more.
A fascinating account
of Ferdinand Magellan’s life, most notably his groundbreaking circumnavigation
of the globe. Bergreen makes even the details of trip preparation and basic
elements of life at sea into page turning events in this excellent historical
narrative.
The search for The Lost
City of Z, a mythical city supposedly hidden deep in the Amazon, has drawn
adventurers and treasure hunters alike for centuries. Follow the author as he
attempts to solve the mystery of the fate of Colonel Percy Fawcett, original
seeker of Z, providing insight into Fawcett’s life and adventures along the
way.
Following the sinking
of his boat during a transatlantic sailing race, Callahan found himself lost at
sea with only rudimentary equipment and a life raft. Fighting weather,
exposure, and shark attacks, he managed to survive seventy six days before
being rescued.
Explorer Wilfred
Thesiger takes a turn at travel writing with The Marsh Arabs, in which he
recounts his time spent among the indigenous Madan culture of southern Iraq
during his Arabian adventures.
Kon-Tiki by
Thor Heyerdahl
Set to sea with Thor
Heyerdahl as he sets out to confirm his hypothesis that the Polynesian Islands
were settled by Peruvian seaman who travelled in balsam wood rafts across the
Pacific. In order to prove his theory, Heyerdahl built his own balsam wood raft
and set sail from South America. 101 days later, he arrived at is destination.
The tragic true account
of the swordfishing boat the Andrea Gail, which was lost at sea during the 1991
Halloween Nor’easter. Sebastian Junger offers a glimpse into the life of a
Gloucester fisherman and the dangers that accompany a life at sea.
Following the sinking
of the U.S.S. Indianapolis by a Japanese submarine in July 1945, the surviving
crew found themselves floating alone in the Pacific, many without so much as a
lifejacket. For four days the crew stayed huddled together, fighting off shark
attacks the entire time, before being rescued. Of the 880 sailors who survived
the initial sinking, 317 were pulled from the water alive.
This masterpiece of
adventure literature, written by a survivor of the doomed 1910-1913 British
Antarctic Expedition, details the events leading up to the expedition and the
tragedies that befell expedition leader Robert F. Scott and his men while
travelling on foot across the great southern continent.
As an accomplished
mountaineer and documentary filmmaker known best for the IMAX film Everest,
David Breashears is no stranger to adventure of the highest order. In this, his
autobiography, he takes us from one brush with death to another on some of the
world’s most impossible peaks and offers a unique insight into the life of a
professional mountaineer.
A cornerstone of travel
literature, this work by the famous 13th century explorer inspired generations
of explorers. Most notable among them was Christopher Columbus, whose desire to
find a western route to the Far East was inspired by Polo’s account of the
culture and resources there.
Herzog’s account of the
first summit of Annapurna, a 26,200 ft mountain in the Himalayas. As expedition
leader, Herzog and his team not only had to reach the summit but had to create
a climbing route, as the mountain was almost completely uncharted. A classic of
the mountaineering genre.
Ralston’s tale is one
of pure determination and the will to survive. While climbing in a Utah canyon,
a falling boulder wedged Ralston’s arm between the rock and the canyon wall,
effectively trapping him. Surviving for six days on virtually nothing, he
eventually cuts off his own arm with a pocket knife and makes his escape, which
included repelling down a cliff one-armed and a lengthy hike before he found
rescue.
K2, the world’s second
highest mountain, has rightfully earned the nickname the savage mountain, with
approximately one of every four who attempt a summit dying in the process. This
is the story of the first Americans to reach the summit of K2 and successfully
return, as told by the mountaineers themselves.
With less than 100
miles separating Atlantic and Pacific in sections of Panama, one would think
that finding a route across would be simple enough. As this book shows,
however, many dangers awaited the 1854 U.S. Darien Exploring Expedition, which
miserably failed in its task, suffering from disorientation, disease and death
before turning back.
The search for Timbuktu
of legend, Africa’s mythical gilded city, drew adventurers and treasure seekers
like moths to a flame, and often at their own peril. Here the author gives
detailed accounts of the major expeditions in search of Timbuktu, along with
the unbearable hardships faced by those who endured them.
The tale of the Spanish
adventurer Cabeza de Vaca, who led an group across the North American continent
long before the days of Lewis and Clark. Travelling over a course of eight
years, he crossed much of modern day Texas, New Mexico and Arizona before
turning south into Mexico.
A lively account of
turn of the century race to reach the North Pole. Frederick Cook had not been
back long from allegedly reaching the North Pole when Robert Peary surfaced,
claiming to have beaten him there. So who was the conqueror of the North? In an
adventurous retelling of the men’s expeditions, Henderson seeks to settle the
debate once and for all.
Another account of the
1996 Everest disaster (see Krakauer’s Into Thin Air) as told by the leader of
the IMAX expedition on the mountain at the time, Jamling Tenzing Norgay.
Norgay, son of the legendary Tenzing Norgay who first conquered Everest with
Hillary, offers his own account of the disaster while simultaneously sharing
intimate stories of his father’s legendary climbing career.
July 20, 1969 will long
be hailed as the ultimate testament to mankind’s spirit of exploration. With no
more distant lands to explore, man took to the stars, beginning what will be
the next stage of exploration and stepping boldly once again into the unknown.
Recalling in detail the triumphs and tragedies of the Apollo missions, Chaikin
places us right in the command module and rockets us into the heavens alongside
the brave men who achieved what most had long considered impossible.
Mawson’s Will: The
Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written by Lennard Bickel
In 1911 Sir Douglas
Mawson, setting out with a small team to chart the Antarctic coastline, had
little idea that he was embarking on what would become one of the greatest
stories of survival in the history of polar exploration. Following the death of
his entire team and the loss of most of his equipment, Mawson is left alone to
survive in the frozen wilderness and lives to tell the tale.
The Vinland Sagas: The
Norse Discovery of America by Anonymous
Nothing says adventure
like a good Viking sea story. This is an account of the Viking’s chance
encounter, and later attempted exploitation, of what is believed to be North
America five hundred years before Columbus set sail.
My Life as an Explorer
by Sven Hedin
In this vibrant mix of
adventure and academia, Swedish geographer Sven Hedin recounts his exploration
of much of the uncharted regions of central Asia at the end of the 19th
century. Many editions include the author’s own hand drawn maps of the region.
Of Whales and Men by
R. B Robertson
An intimate look into
the lives of the men on board the whale ships of the 1950’s; this book offers a
glimpse into the hard life at sea in a bygone era.
The Kid Who Climbed
Everest by Bear Grylls
Man vs Wild host Bear
Grylls recalls his transition from being bedridden (the result of faulty
parachute deployment) to being the youngest Briton to summit Everest. An
inspiring tale of determination and adventure, Grylls is as entertaining on the
page as he is on the screen.
The Innocents Abroad by
Mark Twain
Follow Mark Twain as he
traipses through Old World Europe on his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
marking the curiosities of the foreign lands with the characteristic wit and
irony that made him famous. A classic in travel literature.
“Travel is fatal to
prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it
sorely on these accounts”
Trespassers on the
Roof of the World by Peter Hopkirk
For hundreds of years
men have set out to explore the secrets of Tibet, hidden high in the mountains
of Asia and long known as “the roof of the world.” In this collection of
accounts, Hopkirk examines the various expeditions that set out to explore
Tibet’s mysteries and their successes and failures.
On Horseback Through
Asia Minor by Frederick Burnaby
A compelling report of
a death defying thousand mile winter journey on horseback from Constantinople
to Turkey as told by Frederick Burnaby, known best as the first man to cross
the English Channel alone by hot air balloon.
The Man Eaters of
Kumaon by Jim Corbett
A legend in the world
of big game hunting, Corbett’s shooting skills were, equaled only by his
ability to tell a good story. In this, his most famous work, Corbett details
the hunting of several man eating tigers in the Kumaon region of India
including the Champawat Tiger, which alone killed 436 people before Corbett
came along.
Brazilian Adventure by
Peter Fleming
The autobiographical
account of Peter Fleming, brother of Ian Fleming of 007 fame, as he and a team
embark on an expedition down the Amazon in an effort to discover the fate of
Colonel Fawcett, who disappeared into the jungle years earlier while searching
out the Lost City of Z.
Into Africa: The Epic
Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone by Martin Dugard
Dugard paints a
portrait of famed African explorer Henry Stanley and the famous Dr. David
Livingstone different from so many historical narratives before him, and does
so in his usual thrilling style. This is a true page turner that is guaranteed
to keep you up at night as it follows Stanley and Livingstone through the wilds
of East Africa at a time when danger lurked around every corner.
As always, dear reader,
thanks for listening, and there will be more to come soon.
Adventure, indeed! All these books would make a person lose themselves into the adventure, forget their current troubles or woes, and delight in doing something they've never done before. As always, another excellent blog.
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