Levison Wood writes dramatic, vivid, and adventurous travel-related non-fiction. I had previously read and enjoyed Walking the Nile, which was one of my favorites a few years ago. This is another in the same vein. In this one, he starts in Afghanistan, and travels alongside the Himalayas (not climbing peaks) through Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Highlights of this trek include meeting the Dalai Lama, dodging rockslides and raging rivers, trying to avoid an encounter with wild tigers in the Nepali forests, and being involved in a serious accident. He meets and interacts with the local populations in a wide variety of cultures. He builds friendships with his guides, meeting one of them again after over a decade. It is top rate travel writing. I enjoyed it immensely.

4.5 ( )

This book is amazing. I enjoyed reading this book. ( )

As if walking the entire length of the Nile was not mad enough, his good friend Ashwin Bhardwaj persuades him to walk along the rooftop of the world; the Himalayas. Wood had been to Nepal before way back in 2001, when the country’s Royal family was massacred. At that time a man called Binod took him in and protected him whilst the unrest continued. This new walk along the world’s highest mountain range meant that he had the opportunity to return and see him once again.

Flying into Kabul would be adventure enough for some people, but that was where he needed to get to, to be able to reach the eastern foothills. The last time Wood had been there he was in the army. Met by his minder at the airport, he is taken to the scruffy looking car to make the first part of his journey, before a helicopter ride to the start point. Wakhan Corridor. He is accompanied along the walk by guides, even persuading Ashwin to join him for one section, before he makes it to Nepal for a reunion with his friend, Binod, before continuing his journey to Gankhar Puensum in Bhutan.

Wood is one tough guy; not only is this a mammoth walk of 1700 miles, but he does this at altitude too; no mean feat. He is an easy-going character, meaning that as he meets some of the toughest and nicest people he fits in easily, drawing their stories and lives out into the narrative. The range of cultures is quite an eye opener too, from the strict Islamic areas to the more relaxed and laid back Nepalese. It is reasonably well written, gripping in parts and has one heart-stopping moment. Haven’t seen the TV series yet, but I’m looking forward to watching it soon. ( )

Sometimes, it is better to let the extracts do the talking…

‘’If you keep walking on the north bank of the Thames, past the Putney Bridge Premier Inn there’s a medieval church with a stone tower. In the graveyard outside I took morbid pleasure in trying to find the oldest headstones. Some displayed skull-and-crossbones, carved into the stone, not unlike the ones you’d see on the flags of pirate ships. I’d try to imagine the ragged congregation six hundred years ago crossing the river by rowing boat, and at low tide having to wade up the sandbank covered in mud.’’

‘’Now that we’d reached Kathmandu, everything to the east represented the long walk home, even though it was in the opposite direction. The end was almost in sight. My thoughts wandered back to a grey London. It was mid-October and I imagined the sullen raindrops falling on the Thames and the familiar chatter of people on the daily commute. I thought of tea and toast and mulled wine in Gordon’s. The parakeets of Putney would be roosting now and the leaves of Fulham Palace park reddening with the onset of the festive season. No doubt the Christmas lights were going up[..] ‘’

‘’Any journey will throw up variety, and travelling on foot through the Himalayas had already surprised me in just how different one day could be from the next. Within a matter of hours, I’d moved from lush tropical rainforest to barren empty plateaus. Crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan, I’d changed from a landscape of windswept valleys populated by nomads who lived in yurts, to a settled, peaceful and warm paradise within the space of just a few miles. The borders had often astounded me with their power of separation; not just the landscapes, but also the diversity of people and culture.’’

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