Northern Travel

Oliver Sacks is well known as an explorer of the human mind - a neurologist with a gift for complex, insightful portrayals of people and their conditions. However, he is also a card-carrying member of the American Fern Society, and since childhood has been fascinated by these primitive plants and their ability to survive and adapt in many climates. Oaxaca Journal is Sacks' spellbinding account of his trip with a group of fellow fern enthusiasts to the beautiful, history-steeped province of Oaxaca, Mexico.

An explosion sends roughneck Otto Daniel’s body into icy Prudhoe Bay where he has an unsettling vision. After weeks of recovery in the burn unit of Fairbanks Regional Hospital, he heads northwest and takes a job in a small town in the wilds of Alaska. When tragedy strikes, Otto has that same eerie vision for the second time in his life. Alone again, Otto leaves Alaska for good and wanders the northwest coast of the United States trying to find answers to unknown questions. He ends up working for the exotic Hazel J. Himmel, owner of Jinxie’s Tattoo Karma.

The Trail is a moving story of how nature helps us find what’s missing in our lives. The tale begins with Gil, who in the wake of his father’s death and recently fired from his job, agrees to accompany his father’s old hiking partner Syd on a month-long trek on the John Muir Trail. There’s just one problem: Gil hates camping and is woefully unprepared for the rigors of the journey. Moreover, he soon learns Syd may not survive the hike.

At 23, Andrew Forsthoefel headed out the back door of his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, with a backpack, an audio recorder, his copies of Whitman and Rilke, and a sign that read "Walking to Listen". He had just graduated from Middlebury College and was ready to begin his adult life, but he didn't know how. So he decided to take a cross-country quest for guidance, one where everyone he met would be his guide. In the year that followed, he faced an Appalachian winter and a Mojave summer. He met beasts inside: fear, loneliness, doubt.

For years, America's national parks have provided public breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why close to 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now, to honor the centennial of the National Park Service, Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the beloved memoir When Women Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks, what they mean to us, and what we mean to them.

In the best-selling tradition of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail is a major work of participatory history: an epic account of traveling the entire 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way, in a covered wagon with a team of mules - which hasn't been done in a century - that also tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country.

In My Holiday in North Korea: The Funniest/Worst Place on Earth, Wendy shares a glimpse of North Korea as it's never been seen before. Even though it's the scariest place on Earth, somehow Wendy forgot to check her sense of humor at the border. But Wendy's initial amusement and bewilderment soon turned to frustration and growing paranoia.

RV Living Full Time will help you transition smoothly from a boring life at home to the adventure of a lifetime on the open road. At first, it may all feel overwhelming, but this audiobook will help get you properly prepared for the next big chapter in your life.

Everywhere hailed as a masterpiece of historical adventure, this enthralling narrative recounts the experiences of 12 American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara. The ordeal of these men - who found themselves tested by barbarism, murder, starvation, death, dehydration, and hostile tribes that roamed the desert on camelback - is made indelibly vivid in this gripping account of courage, brotherhood, and survival.

Explore North Carolina's eerie folklore with W.J. Brendle, Ph.D., in this captivating study of the state's cryptids and supernatural beings. From ancient Native legends to modern sightings, uncover tales of the Judaculla, a Cherokee giant; Lorelei, the French Broad River siren; and the Beast of Bladenboro, a vampire-like creature. Meet Dogman, Bigfoot's cousin Knobby, the Wampus Cat, and Normie, the Lake Norman monster. Blending history, mythology, firsthand accounts, and cryptozoological intrigue, this book invites readers to ponder the mystery and cultural significance of these legends ...

Ever since I cycled down the west coast of Canada and the United States as a means of saving the bus fare on a round-the-world trip, I dreamed of cycling the whole length of that landmass, from the southern tip of South America all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. Returning home to a job I didn’t enjoy, that dream burned at my mind until, as a mature student in 1999, I was given the opportunity to take a year out and decided now was my time.

Uncover the magic of Northern Ireland—a land of rugged cliffs, ancient castles, and warm pubs waiting to steal your heart! In Discover Northern Ireland: Your Ultimate Guide to Hidden Gems, Scenic Wonders, and Local Secrets, Rowan Quinn takes you on a journey through Belfast’s buzzing streets, the Causeway Coast’s dramatic shores, the Mourne Mountains’ sweeping trails, Derry’s historic walls, Fermanagh’s serene lakes, and the Ards Peninsula’s quiet beauty. Picture standing on the Giant’s Causeway, waves crashing below, or sipping whiskey in a 17th-century pub as fiddles play....

For 10 years, Louis Theroux has been making programmes about off-beat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he revisits America and the people who have most fascinated him to try to discover what motivates them, why they believe the things they believe, and to find out what has happened to them since he last saw them.

The Appalachian Trail covers 14 states and over 2,000 miles, snaking through some of the most spectacular landscapes in America. Reluctant adventurer Bryson recounts his gruelling hike along the longest continuous footpath in the world.

Shortly after his death in 1957, The New York Times obituary of Peter Freuchen noted that except for Richard E. Byrd, and despite his foreign beginnings, Freuchen was perhaps better known to more people in the United States than any other explorer of our time. During his lifetime Freuchen's remarkable adventures, related in his books, magazine articles, and films, made him a legend. In 1910, Freuchen and his friend and business partner, Knud Rasmussen, the renowned polar explorer, founded Thule—a Greenland Inuit trading post and village only 800 miles from the North Pole.

***Newly Updated in 2025*** Sometimes known as “America’s Most Scenic Drive,” the Blue Ridge Parkway is a two-lane highway traveling through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. Traversing both mountain ridges and dipping into the valleys below, the Blue Ridge Parkway gets visitors close to nature and history as it winds and meanders the mountains. Join 101 Travel Bits to see how the Blue Ridge Parkway came to be known as one of the most famous and beautiful roads in the United States. 101 Travel Bits are not your typical guidebooks. Each collection of 101 Travel ...

Surrender to the undeniable magic of Kauai, where every moment is filled with a promise of unforgettable memories. Picture yourself strolling along pristine beaches, feeling the soft sand between your toes and the gentle breeze against your skin. Snorkel into crystal-clear waters teeming with colorful marine life, or bask in the warm tropical sun as you surf the waves along the majestic coastline…

Many dream of dropping everything and just traveling around the world. It's a common dream, but few imagine embarking on that journey by bicycle. Exposed to the elements, legs burning, all your possessions strapped to you and your bicycle - it doesn't paint a relaxing picture, but this is just what Pierre-Yves Tremblay did.

Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education". Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea.

In this abridgement of River-Horse, the pre-eminent chronicler of American back roads - who has given us the classics Blue Highways and Prairyerth - recounts his singular voyage through American waters from sea to sea. Along the route, he offers a lyrical and ceaselessly fascinating shipboard perspective on the country and its rivers, lakes, canals, and landscapes.