| Just think of the greatest adventurers who | | | | returned from New Hampshire to Britain, |
| ever lived and the greatest journeys ever | | | | giving down under the thumbs down. Just too |
| undertaken: the Jews, Marco Polo, Christopher | | | | many snakes per square kilometer I suppose. |
| Columbus and Charles Darwin come to mind. All | | | | |
| of them had compelling reasons for setting | | | | Now we come to the sublime reasons for |
| off on dangerous journeys into the unknown. | | | | travel. There are tales of pilgrimage, such |
| What they found (in their cases the Promised | | | | as Shirley MacLaine's account of her walk the |
| Land, China, America and evolution | | | | length of the Santiago de Compostela Camino |
| respectively) soldered them into history and | | | | in northern Spain, the ancient 500 mile |
| made them famous, but also opened the world | | | | pilgrimage route initiated by St James de |
| to travel as never before. | | | | Compostela ending at Santiago. 'Camino: a |
| | | | journey of the spirit' never reaches any |
| Travel writing ever since has echoed the | | | | conclusions and elicits no discernible |
| odysseys of these great people. Writers still | | | | greatness of spirit in the writer, but it |
| feel it incumbent on them to have some higher | | | | surely gave Ms MacLaine fodder for a |
| purpose to their journeys beyond mere | | | | bestselling book in the bland genre of |
| self-indulgence or curiosity. On the rare | | | | Californian spiritualism. |
| occasions when travel writers break this rule | | | | |
| they tend to fall ill or become irredeemably | | | | Ineffably more substantial is the marvelous |
| cranky when they sit down to put their | | | | book by William Dalrymple 'From the Holy |
| experiences on paper. | | | | Mountain' in which this handsome young Scot |
| | | | journeys to the places visited by John |
| The range of reasons travel writers dream up | | | | Moschos some 1500 hundred years before. His |
| to focus their journeys range from the absurd | | | | beautiful journey through the dying remnants |
| to the sublime. Take that outstanding | | | | of Byzantium in our own age (he traveled in |
| wordsmith Bill Bryson. This man literally | | | | 1997) is an unforgettable book by a |
| thought up journeys he could take, to create | | | | marvelously intelligent Catholic probing the |
| fodder for his witty irony and superb | | | | embers of Eastern Orthodox religion. |
| humorous descriptions. A walk along the | | | | |
| Appalachian Trail with an old school friend | | | | Between the absurd and the sublime reasons |
| (do you remember Katz?) became much more than | | | | for travel lie many others. In 'African |
| 'A Walk in the Woods' as it was entitled. It | | | | Rainbow' Lorenzo and Mirella Ricciardi |
| was a humorous ramble through the American | | | | traveled along the waterways in Africa, |
| nature tourist culture and a lambasting of | | | | evidently searching for the ultimate noble |
| the authorities responsible for the national | | | | savage in the European mold. They never found |
| parks of the United States. It did not matter | | | | him or her but their book was published. It |
| that Bryson completed only a tiny part of the | | | | ends up being an uneasy journey of a couple |
| trail. This incredibly long hike (Bryson | | | | to a continent they didn't understand. |
| spends a few pages embarrassing all the | | | | |
| authorities who cannot agree on its exact | | | | In 'The Great Railway Bazaar' Paul Theroux |
| length) served one purpose and one purpose | | | | travels on the Orient Express, the Khyber |
| only; it gave Bryson something to write | | | | Pass Local, the Golden Arrow, the Mandalay |
| about. | | | | Express, an odyssey on great trains from |
| | | | London through Europe and Asia, across |
| Similarly Bryson's book about rural America | | | | Siberia. And his eye misses nothing as he |
| entitled 'The Lost Continent' has a very thin | | | | describes this travel mode of a bygone age |
| basis to it: Bryson vaguely travels the roads | | | | and these out-of-the-way places, but I always |
| his parents followed, when they took their | | | | feel that Theroux travels and writes under |
| children on madcap long haul treks across the | | | | duress rather than from compulsion, rather |
| United States to see the sights (and sites of | | | | like Shiva Naipaul in 'North of South'. |
| famous battles and historical occurrences) | | | | |
| and generally scrounged their way along on a | | | | Naipaul visited the insalubrious African |
| shoestring budget, to the mystification of | | | | countries: Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, where |
| the Bryson children. Again Bryson gets his | | | | Asians have been personae non grata in the |
| teeth into a subject without much | | | | past, and in some places still are, to find |
| justification. Not that he needs it, you | | | | out what makes Africa tick. Of course no one |
| understand. | | | | does know what makes Africa tick, not even |
| | | | Naipaul. |
| Bryson made a career of taking whole | | | | |
| continents and wrapping them around his | | | | Never mind that these men seem to have been |
| tongue, as in 'Down Under', his dry yet | | | | uncomfortable about their journeys. Both are |
| informative take on Australia. He went there | | | | renowned travel writers, not least due to |
| because he had always wanted to see it and, | | | | their dogged purposefulness. The point, it |
| as the subtext suggests, he was looking for | | | | seems, is to have some intention when moving |
| an alternative place to live. He and his | | | | across the landscape. A traveler without |
| family had already done England and New | | | | intention is merely a wanderer. |
| England. As it happened, the Bryson family | | | | |