by TIM CAHILL
Tim Cahill has previously been described as �the Indiana Jones of travel� and, believe me, not without reason.
This all-American adventurer gets stuck into anything and everything, from delving deep into the jungles of Peru and sea kayaking down the gloriously spectacular West Coast of North America, to injuring oneself in the remote Queen Charlotte Islands and bounding about near huge Alaskan glaciers.
Like Palin, Cahill is proud to have fearlessly gone where few people have gone before, and his travel accounts are packed with a riveting wit and compassion for the places that he visits and the people whom he meets.
The bulk of his travel writing has featured extensively in the US �adventure� magazine �Outside.� Coincidentally, the author of �Into The Wild� � Jon Krakauer � has also written for the magazine.
�Remote Journeys�,� then, is basically another compilation of Tim�s writings: a heavyweight read that�s subdivided into 24 wildly diverse chapters. There is most definitely an art to travel writing and an intoxicating balance between the writer�s experiences and hard facts about the places in which they are having such experiences is a must. Thankfully, Cahill thoroughly researches into all the places he visits in order to deliver some awesome facts. Moreover, he likes to learn �first hand� and isn�t afraid to go and live in the jungles with potential cannibals and head-hunters in the form of New Guinea�s little-known-about Karowai tribe, for instance. In this respect Cahill might remind of Brit adventurer Benedict Allen who�s been on a number of fascinatingly crazy adventures that have included extensive time spent in a rainforest, in the desert and in the Arctic with a bunch of snowdogs.
Opening this book there is a chapter recalling time spent horse-riding in Mongolia: �Mongolia, sometimes called Outer Mongolia, is an independent country. Inner Mongolia, which borders Mongolia on the east, is part of China and it was the Chinese who coined what has become a hated terminology: Inner Mongolia is closer to Beijing; Outer Mongolia is further away.� And not a lot of people know that.
Oh - while I remember, and just in case you yourself head off into any Malaria-tinged countries, if your number ones come out the same colour as your numbers 2�s then it might be time to start worrying, for brown urine is one of the symptoms of having malaria, so says Cahill, who�s also prone to captivating moments of philosophy: �We produce art or music or literature or philosophy or children; we make laws, or medicine or history; we become saints or outlaws in our life-long scramble to create some living context. This � we need to say � is who I truly am. It�s our one shot at immortality.� Hear, hear.
This man in Cahill knows what he�s talking about, and if you are fascinated or even personally obsessed by the concept of world travel to off-the-beaten track places, and via sometimes abnormal but wholly thrilling means (i.e., kayaking � for a start), his writing makes for more than essential reading.
(Steve Rudd)
ISBN 1-85702-653-5 (FOURTH ESTATE; first published in 1997)