This is Benedict Allen's first book - a tale of triumphs, mishaps, dangers and sheer bloody-minded endurance but, at another level, an exploration of the Amazon's dark themes of allurement and exploitation. At the age of 22, inspired by a youthful aspiration to be an explorer, Allen set out to travel from the mouth of the Orinoco to the mouth of the Amazon. But as he stumbled through the Amazonian jungle, he was soon confronted by the harsh reality of his isolation in the midst of potentially perilous territory. Mercifully, the experience of living in the rainforest among indigenous Indians taught him how to survive - a skill of which he soon found himself to be in considerable and urgent need.

Mad White Giant (Flamingo S.)

Travel

Allen, Benedict

Travel Writing

Flamingo

Through jaguar eyes: Crossing the Amazon basin

When 23-year-old Benedict Allen ventured alone into the jungle between the Orinoco and the Amazon, he was entering unexpected territory from which no white man had ever returned. Against all odds, he won acceptance among the Indians, learning from them the secrets of jungle survival. But when admiration gave way to greed and mutiny, Allen was forced to flee for his life. This book recounts his experiences.

Mad White Giant: A Journey to the Heart of the Amazon Jungle

History

Macmillan

Into the Crocodile Nest: A Journey Inside New Guinea

Australia & South Pacific

Pan/Macmillan

The author travelled to Malaysia, Indonesia and Sumatra to find out what lay behind the legends of Sumatra's lost ape-men. In this light-hearted travel book he speculates on the origins of the human race and describes his adventures and encounters with tribal people. Benedict Allen has also written "Mad White Giant" and "Into the Crocodile Nest".

Hunting the Gugu: In search of the lost ape-men of Sumatra

Asia

The "Skeleton Coast", where the Namib Desert meets the Atlantic Ocean in south-western Africa, is named after the bleached bones and shipwrecks that lie on its shores. This is Benedict Allen's account of his thousand-mile trek with camels through the Namib Desert and along the Skeleton Coast. Allen prepares for his journey with the nomadic, goat-herding Himba tribe in the north of the Namib, learning essentials for desert survival. Submerging himself in the community, he comes to understand the everyday fears and aspirations of these extraordinary people. He then travels south to the fringes of the Kalahari, where he undertakes a gruelling three-week period, training his reluctant camels. Escorted by security personnel through diamond areas closed to the outside world, Allen moves north past ghost towns and through some of the highest dunes in the world. The journey continues through lion, rhino and elephant country, where Allen battles to maintain authority over his faithful but nervous camels, until he is reunited with the Himba nomads.

The Skeleton Coast: A Journey Through the Namib Desert

BBC Books

Mongolia has changed remarkably little since the days of its medieval hero, the warlord Genghis Khan. Famed for its cloudless blue skies, it is a country of varied terrain: icy mountains and lakes, wind-blown steppe, wolf and bear, forests and vast desert. This beautiful, in parts almost uninhabitable, landscape becomes home to Benedict Allen as he travels by horse and camel from the forests of Siberia, across the open plains of the Mongolian steppe, and on alone through the Gobi Desert. Illustrated throughout in colour, Edge of Blue Heaven presents a vivid picture of this fascinating country and is as much a tribute to one of the world's few remaining nomadic peoples as it is to the tension and drama of travel at its most demanding.

Edge of Blue Heaven: A Journey Through Mongolia

Literature & Fiction

Arbib, Adrian

Dramas & Plays

Bbc Pubns

Book by Allen, Benedict, Bonington, Chris, Gates, Henry Louis, Henry, Buck, Okri, Ben, Sayle, Alexi, Wood, Victoria

More Great Railway Journeys

Gates, Henry Louis

BONINGTON, Chris

WOOD, Victoria

OKRI,BEN

Sayle Alexi

Henry, Buck

Reference

Into the Abyss

Faber&Faber

Hunting the Gugu

HarperCollins, Publishers

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