Outside's Go Travel and Style for Men, a quarterly published by Outside magazine, has recommendations for "Books for the Road" in the September issue. Included is Fran Sandham's marvelous Traversa, which chronicles his epic 3,000 mile trek across Africa, from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean. Part travelogue, part history, Traversa is an awe-inspiring and often hilarious testament to Sandham's grit, determination, and sheer obsession with the continent of Africa.
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Blog: The Winged Elephant (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Blog: The Winged Elephant (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Author and adventurer Fran Sandham was recently interviewed by Rebecca Ruiz for Forbes.com. They discuss his incredible 3,000-mile walk across Africa, which he chronicles in Traversa. Here are some highlights from their talk: I wouldn't say so, no. It just seemed a way of being adventurous in a traditional way. The drawback is the hard work. But people responded to me warmly when they saw I was traveling in a way that involved a degree of hardship. The local guys imagined I was tough and the women wanted to mother me and feed me. Virtually everyone I met--black or white--seemed genuinely enthusiastic about what I was doing, mostly because there was something intrinsically funny about it. What was the best luxury throughout your trip? Books. That was the only indulgence really. As I was traveling alone, that was the thing that kept me going. I would stop for three quarters of an hour and feel a lot more rested if I'd been reading than if I had been staring out to space thinking about the journey. It's certainly quite ironic that you're on a journey that's escapist in itself and that you'd want to escape from that with books. Bad things can happen in Africa, but bad things can happen at home. In Africa, because I was on such a mission, you have to accept that there's going to be some degree of risk. Overall, I was quite lucky. In a lot of people's minds, the dangers were exaggerated. There are dangers, but I think in some ways I was safer the way I traveled than as a conventional backpacker. They get off a bus and people know where they're going to be and what they're going to do. I always arrived unannounced.
Is this kind of a trip for everyone?
Blog: The Winged Elephant (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Fran Sandham's TRAVERSA: A Solo Walk Across Africa from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean, has been selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the best travel books for summer reading (June 1 issue): "Inspired by the 19th-century Scottish missionary David Livingstone, Sandham leaves his drafty London flat and his job in a West End bookshop and embarks on an open-ended journey on foot across the Namibian desert to Tanzania. along the way, he collapses from heat exhaustion, runs out of plasters to soothe his agonizing blisters, swats away tsetse flies and endure the constant stares of astonished locals. At first annoyed by the attention, Sandham begins to look himself through African eyes: “Here I am, a white guy, plodding along with an enormous pack, my trekking poles giving me the appearance of skiing down the road, the bandanna wrapped around my head making me look like something from The Pirates of Penzance. Sometimes I forget I look rather singular.” Sandham’s self-deprecation and affectionate attitude toward the people he encounters lift this book high above the vast pile of African-adventure travelogues."
Blog: Tappity Tappity (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Man, what a dumb word: Oops!
"Oops, I accidentally dropped a 40 megaton bomb on the state of New Mexico."
"Oops, I guess that pistol WAS loaded."
"I just fired myself out of a cannon into a cauldron of hot, bubbly magma. Oops."
Anyway, I just thought I should come right out and tell you that I don't know when to leave well enough alone. I sent off a query letter for my 'little-story-that-couldn't' THE SHORT BUS JOURNAL out to an agent this afternoon.
I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened.
Maybe it's some of my friends kind of prompting me not to give up on it or maybe it's just because I think it still has some life left in it.
I don't know.
I guess we'll see what happens. And hey, you'll be the first to know, deal?
Solid.
RUMOR ALERT: It's been said that a mystery box has appeared on the front steps of a certain house in Woodbury, MN (my house!). In it, there could be a bunch of long-overdue author copies of some sort or the other. Stay tuned for all the details...
...and a contest.
*backflips and spins twice in the air before landing in a dumpster full of Orange Tic-Tacs*
Once more, an unintentional yet interesting effect. Medium: suddenly leaky Prismacolor pen, paper towel smearing.
So, there's a box on your front porch, too? I left a bag...full of dog poop...and I lit it on fire.
Contest? Contest!
Again, I say
Contest??
Hooray!
You forgot what is perhaps the worst use of the word "Oops!"
That would be "Oops, I did it again" by the illustrious Ms. Spears.
I echo Susan!
Contest? Contest!
And that is not an oops! That's a YAY! I'll keep my fingers crossed!!
Good luck with your submission, Thomas. And much joy on finally receiving your author copies of Patrick's Super Socks, you must be beyond stoked.
So what are you contesting? Possibly the completion of Oh Zombie?
Dr. Doofus - Yeah, and the guys from my fire station had to put it out. Pretty embarassing. Thanks BD. Thanks a lot.
SS - Yepper. Stand by for details, yo.
Dan - Oh, I didn't forget. I sort of named the post in her honor. I'll never do that again!
Courts - Contest? Aw yeah... contest, y'all. Keep them figners crossed, that lil' story is batting O so far. Oh well, at least some of my peeps liked it!
CG - Thanks! Yeah, it was pretty crazy. My first reaction was: "What the heck am I gonna do with 10 copies of this bad-boy?" Then I was like: "This is a box of my books." Pretty cool.
Stan - Well, you'll have to see, good sir. As for the much delayed filming of the zombie/sitcom/musical 'Oh, Zombie!' I'm trying to put something together for later this year. We'll see...
I love boxes from the UPS man.
Opps, send out 2 more queries for the Short Bus today...things work better in 3's.
That will teach me to READ THE TITLE OF THE POST before I comment. Geez, that's how my week has been going.
*slinks away* ;)