Rating: 
Summary: Come apart, into a desert place
Review: A British "every man" who describes himself as being a self absorbed couch potato, walks alone around the rugged and remote coastlines of Baja California. The self-deprecating honesty and insight is unusual and refreshing. He persists through heat and drought, rock slides and dangerous tides, scorpions and thorny plants, daunting geological impediments, rattlesnakes, and sharks -- yet the story is more 'man in nature' than the more common and inane 'man against nature.'
Mackintosh's sensitivity to the lands he interacts with is fascinating, particularly given that he is afoot in a 'wild' land a hemisphere from his home, in an environment foreign to his previous life. "I didn't need anyone to tell me what was right and wrong. The land was sacred to me. I was a part of it. I wasn't one of a million careless tourists with their trucks, bikes and polluting toys. I was one in a million. The desert was special and my needs were special. There was no conflict. ... The sense of being special to a special place was very much part of the exhilaration and the experience. ... Yet, to put it into words was to distort it. The feeling was the reality and the mystery. It saddened me to think that I might never be able to share it with another person. 'In what concerns you much,' wrote Thoreau, 'know that you are alone in the world.'" Relevant recountings of historical events are woven into the narrative, as are the author's spiritual musings.
The whole-heartedness with which Mackintosh merges into a new landscape is complimented by the friendships which he easily forges with the ranchers and fishermen of rural and wild Baja, and their families. As a journal of wilderness travel, this may be one of the best books written in the twentieth century.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book by a unspoiled, open and honest person.
Review: A wonderful book about Baja. Graham Mackintosh sees Baja and the Mexican people through fresh, open and appreciative eyes. His book tells as much about his character as that of the land he travels.
Rating:
Summary: A real driving force.... a motivator.
Review: Graham exposes Baja in a way very few people will experience the Baja peninsula. I have spent the last 10 years exploring and traveling this unknown part of Mexico and I realize how little I know about Baja California.Where are you now Graham MacKintosh??
Rating: 
Summary: Plucky Pale Brit hears a call...Baja, Baja, carps the diem.
Review: Graham heard a call, sounded like Baja. So without money,
experience or, some would say, an ounce of cautious wisdom,
he set out to walk the entire coastline of the Baja.
This great tale of one man's search for adventure, which he
determined could not be found in a normal life in England,
is about "carping the diem". Face the fear, and do it anyway.
Cactus, snakes, scorpions, heat and thirst were the price of the beauty he found there. His inner strength and capacity were Graham's real discoveries.
An unlikely adventurer emerges sunburnt from the desert,
carrying plastic water jugs, triumphant.
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT BAJA BOOK BY AN OLD BAJA HAND
Review: I bought this book years ago, after reading a typewritten review in one of those "Doomsday Is Comming--Soon!" 'zines. Most of the books reviewed in it were those grim tomes about how to survive by eating nuts and berries after The Big One gets dropped and wipes out 50% of our population. Mr. McKintosh's book proved to be a pleasant suprise--a well- written account, an out-and-out adventure, a walk across the remote desert of Lower California on a shoestring budget. When he got the idea to actually Do It, McKinstosh was slightly pudgy Scottish college professor whose main exercise seemed to have been lifting a bottle of beer to his lips while he watched football (that's soccer to us Yanks) on the telly. By the time he completed his several month journey, he was lean and sun-baked, the antithesis of his former couch potato self. In the process, I'd say Mr. McKintosh grew, and actually "found the handle". He figured out what he was about, and what he wanted to do with his life. For me, some of the most enjoyable parts were those describing how he begged equipment from manufacturers and outfitters, and how he raised funding along the way by writing accounts that he posted to newspapers and magazines. Of course, there's The Adventure itself, including an amusing account of how he got sloshed from booze he obtained from gathering whiskey bottles that had washed ashore after being thrown overboard from cruise ships. (He sagely notes that staggering around in the boonies at night is risky business.) Along the way, McKintosh gets befriended by all sorts of interesting, impoverished, and invariably generous folk. Those accounts have a Beginner's Mind freshness to them as well. Since his original trek, McKinstosh has acquired a modicum of fame. He lectures and writes for the Baja Travel Club, and has since written another book about a second journey with a burro for company. That's a nice piece as well, but I prefer the freshness that only comes from seeing things for the first time. I'm an old Baja hand myself, and over the years, I've collected a lot of books about Lower California. This one ranks at the very top. So buy it, read it, and enjoy the photographs. I'm sure you'll find the money well spent.
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT BAJA BOOK BY AN OLD BAJA HAND
Review: I bought this book years ago, after reading a typewritten review in one of those "Doomsday Is Comming--Soon!" 'zines. Most of the books reviewed in it were those grim tomes about how to survive by eating nuts and berries after The Big One gets dropped and wipes out 50% of our population. Mr. McKintosh's book proved to be a pleasant suprise--a well- written account, an out-and-out adventure, a walk across the remote desert of Lower California on a shoestring budget. When he got the idea to actually Do It, McKinstosh was slightly pudgy Scottish college professor whose main exercise seemed to have been lifting a bottle of beer to his lips while he watched football (that's soccer to us Yanks) on the telly. By the time he completed his several month journey, he was lean and sun-baked, the antithesis of his former couch potato self. In the process, I'd say Mr. McKintosh grew, and actually "found the handle". He figured out what he was about, and what he wanted to do with his life. For me, some of the most enjoyable parts were those describing how he begged equipment from manufacturers and outfitters, and how he raised funding along the way by writing accounts that he posted to newspapers and magazines. Of course, there's The Adventure itself, including an amusing account of how he got sloshed from booze he obtained from gathering whiskey bottles that had washed ashore after being thrown overboard from cruise ships. (He sagely notes that staggering around in the boonies at night is risky business.) Along the way, McKintosh gets befriended by all sorts of interesting, impoverished, and invariably generous folk. Those accounts have a Beginner's Mind freshness to them as well. Since his original trek, McKinstosh has acquired a modicum of fame. He lectures and writes for the Baja Travel Club, and has since written another book about a second journey with a burro for company. That's a nice piece as well, but I prefer the freshness that only comes from seeing things for the first time. I'm an old Baja hand myself, and over the years, I've collected a lot of books about Lower California. This one ranks at the very top. So buy it, read it, and enjoy the photographs. I'm sure you'll find the money well spent.
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT BAJA BOOK BY AN OLD BAJA HAND
Review: I bought this book years ago, after reading a typewritten review in one of those "Doomsday Is Comming--Soon!" 'zines. Most of the books reviewed in it were those grim tomes about how to survive by eating nuts and berries after The Big One gets dropped and wipes out 50% of our population. Mr. McKintosh's book proved to be a pleasant suprise--a well- written account, an out-and-out adventure, a walk across the remote desert of Lower California on a shoestring budget. When he got the idea to actually Do It, McKinstosh was slightly pudgy Scottish college professor whose main exercise seemed to have been lifting a bottle of beer to his lips while he watched football (that's soccer to us Yanks) on the telly. By the time he completed his several month journey, he was lean and sun-baked, the antithesis of his former couch potato self. In the process, I'd say Mr. McKintosh grew, and actually "found the handle". He figured out what he was about, and what he wanted to do with his life. For me, some of the most enjoyable parts were those describing how he begged equipment from manufacturers and outfitters, and how he raised funding along the way by writing accounts that he posted to newspapers and magazines. Of course, there's The Adventure itself, including an amusing account of how he got sloshed from booze he obtained from gathering whiskey bottles that had washed ashore after being thrown overboard from cruise ships. (He sagely notes that staggering around in the boonies at night is risky business.) Along the way, McKintosh gets befriended by all sorts of interesting, impoverished, and invariably generous folk. Those accounts have a Beginner's Mind freshness to them as well. Since his original trek, McKinstosh has acquired a modicum of fame. He lectures and writes for the Baja Travel Club, and has since written another book about a second journey with a burro for company. That's a nice piece as well, but I prefer the freshness that only comes from seeing things for the first time. I'm an old Baja hand myself, and over the years, I've collected a lot of books about Lower California. This one ranks at the very top. So buy it, read it, and enjoy the photographs. I'm sure you'll find the money well spent.
Rating:
Summary: Spiritual Journey not just a travel adventure
Review: I originally read this book several years back and now find myself periodically rereading it as its a spiritual journey packaged in a travel adventure. I dream of doing something like it however will probably not. If you like "cultural experiences" with the locals where you travel to you will love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Spiritual Journey not just a travel adventure
Review: I originally read this book several years back and now find myself periodically rereading it as its a spiritual journey packaged in a travel adventure. I dream of doing something like it however will probably not. If you like "cultural experiences" with the locals where you travel to you will love this book.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book by a unspoiled, open and honest person.
Review: I read this as research for my own upcoming trip to Baja -- I don't plan on roughing it quite so much, but I found a lot of good advice and insight here. About the only complaint I have is there's no epilogue to let us know what happened to Mackintosh after he made his trip!
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