Showing titles in Travel Writing & Commentary

This is the account of a unique journey – a 600-mile trek on foot around Cyprus in the last year of the island's peace. Colin Thubron intertwines myth, history and personal anecdote in a quest from which the characters and places, architecture and landscape all spring vividly to the listener's ear.

Described by the author as simply 'a work of love', Mirror to Damascus provides an enthralling and fascinating history of Damascus from the Amorites of the Bible to the revolution of 1966, as well as being a charming and witty personal record of a city well-loved. In explaining how modern Damascus is rooted in immemorial layers of culture and tradition, Colin Thubron explores the historical, artistic, social and religious inheritance of the Damascenes in an amusing and perceptive manner.

Skulking through customs with a suitcase full of truffles, toads singing the Marseillaise, taking pastis lessons and finding gold at the bottom of the garden, you might think there is little time left for pleasures of the table. Toujours Provence proves that while you might not be able to get away from it all, you can have fun trying.

Anita Sethi was on a journey through Northern England when she became the victim of a race-hate crime. The crime was a vicious attack on her right to exist in a place on account of her race. After the event, Anita experienced panic attacks and anxiety. A crushing sense of claustrophobia made her long for wide open spaces, to breathe deeply in the great outdoors. She was intent on not letting her experience stop her travelling freely and without fear.

In the best-selling tradition of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail is a major work of participatory history: an epic account of traveling the entire 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way, in a covered wagon with a team of mules - which hasn't been done in a century - that also tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country.

The magnificent Danube both cuts across and connects Central Europe, flowing through and alongside 10 countries: Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and Germany. Travelling its full length from east to west, against the river's flow, Nick Thorpe embarks on an inspiring yearlong journey that leads to a new perspective on Europe today. Thorpe's account is personal, conversational, funny, immediate, and uniquely observant - everything one expects in the best travel writing.

Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840. While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles that affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway), and being something of a nonconformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor.

This autobiographical story records Stevenson's experiences of travelling in the Cevennes in 1878, accompanied by his... ahem..."trusty" donkey Modestine, who provides many amusing moments. The story also encompasses an insightful account of the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the area, and is a wonderfully descriptive reading.

Charley Boorman is back on his bike exploring the world's second-largest country - home to some of the most stunning and challenging terrain known to man. Canada is a country of extremes, and Charley knows all about pushing the limits. He goes dirt biking in New Brunswick, dives through old shipwrecks in Tobermory and rides along Butch Cassidy's old Outlaw Trail. He also meets a fascinating mix of people on his journey.

The year is 1989. The destination is North Cape, far inside the Arctic Circle. An era of travel without smartphones, GPS, Google Maps, and still not an ounce of common sense. Andy has swapped his battered old Suzuki for a spanking new Kawasaki GPZ1000RX. Let's ride together as we cross fjords, frozen tundra and high mountain passes to reach the most northern point of Europe.

Growing up a 90-pound weakling tormented by bullies in the schoolyards of Kansas, young Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become the toughest fighter in the world, like Caine in his favorite 1970s TV series, Kung Fu. While in college, Matthew decided the time had come to pursue this quixotic dream before it was too late. Much to the dismay of his parents, he dropped out of Princeton to spend two years training with the legendary sect of monks who invented kung fu and Zen Buddhism.

On January 17, 1913, alone and near starvation, Douglas Mawson, leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, was hauling a sledge to get back to base camp - the dogs were gone. Mawson plunged through a snow bridge, dangling over an abyss by the sledge harness. A line of poetry gave him the will to haul himself back to the surface. On February 8, when he staggered back to base, his features unrecognizable, the first teammate to reach him blurted out, "Which one are you?"

Catching all the fascination and humour of travel in out-of-the-way places, One's Company is Peter Fleming's account of his journey through Russia and Manchuria to China when he was Special Correspondent to The Times in the 1930s. Fleming spent seven months with the "object of investigating the Communist situation in South China" at a time when, as far as he knew, "no previous journey had been made to the anti-communist front by a foreigner", and on its publication in 1934, One's Company won widespread critical acclaim.

You'll be blown away by the sound of tropical birds, chimpanzees - and even elephants! - that I hear from my wooden house at Sunbird Hill, overlooking Kibale Forest, one of Uganda's national parks. Welcome to my world! I've worked in conservation and tourism in East Africa for 15 years, and I've met some extraordinary people along the way. I want you to meet them! Tune in every week to The East Africa Travel Podcast for the dawn chorus, travel advice, chats with award-winning conservationists, safari guides, birders, lodge owners, and wacky guidebook writers. Transcripts of every episode are...

Is adventure travel an addictive escape or a vessel for self development? What makes people leave those that they love to take huge risks? Does showing vulnerability make you weak? In these very uncertain times - how do we become strong individuals who can contribute to society? Adventurer and Guinness World record holder Ed Stafford will explore this very concept with a different guest each week. Guests include the remarkable Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Ness Knight and Dwayne Fields. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was the deadliest string of shark attacks the world has ever seen. In 2011, sharks in Réunion, a beautiful island, way out in the Indian Ocean started biting people way more than ever before and with lunatic violence. The epidemic forced local surfers, politicians, and business owners into a proxy war with ocean lovers and conservationists worldwide, where long simmering tensions boiled over. Réunion: Shark Attacks in Paradise is the story of what happened on this beautiful island, and the astonishing human resilience in the face of lethal environmental threat in a world out of balance. ...

WDW Prep To Go – a Disney World planning podcast

In the summer of 1978, 21-year-old Paul Wilson jumps at the chance to join two local icons on a dream surf trip to mainland Mexico, unaware their ultimate destination lies in the heart of the drug cartel country. Having no earthly idea of where he’ll get the money to pay his share and determined to prove his mettle, he does the only thing he can think of: He robs a supermarket.

Ellen Barone and her husband, Hank, are living a comfortable, creative life when they learn their rented house has sold. With no immediate solution, they hatch a plan to live in Mexico for the length of a visitor visa. They then move to Nicaragua. Then Ecuador...I Could Live Here is an intrepid woman's open-hearted chronicle of change and adaptation and joys and discoveries that come with seeking one's place in the world and what it means to be home.

UK based Orlando Podcast! Russ takes you around the parks, discussing all things Disney, Universal and everything else around Orlando!