Into the remote places

Rating:
Summary: Crazy man travels world by bike
Review: So you'd think a guy bold enough to hop on his bike and go touring for up to a year at a time would have alot to say, and want to write about it. Among the mysteries of this man is that he had someone else write the book for him. Having done alot of bicycle touring myself this struck me as odd as the experience stimulates one to have much to say about it. However, he could be simply a very poor writer, and either way the result is impressive.

The book chronicles several voyages he did by bike: Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (Chile), a nordic country to South Africa, and a trans-Amazon trip. On each of these trips, there are phenomenal descriptions of run-ins with locals, some good, many not. He is chased by spear-throwing africans (really), he crosses a 35 mile swamp in Colombia by canoe, he arranges to have a cycling companion for a leg of the trip but after a falling out they race one another across the Sahara. The adventures come thick and intriguing, and this is not a work of fiction so it's difficult to believe the things he pulls off. One realizes in the course of this book that this man is truly not sane, it's one thing to say this, another to realize it's true about someone. At one point on a tour he passes within a couple hundred yards of his family home, his parents inside, and does not stop because he "had to get somewhere". Perhaps an addiction to movement, or an inability to give up adventure. You be the judge, if you can find a copy to read.