a blog about travel literature
What’s wrong with adventure travel writing if we get bored by it?
in 2011, British adventurer Rob Lilwall has just finished a bike ride from Siberia to the UK. This time, he decides to take a buddy along (Irish adventurer Leon McCarron) and walk from Mongolia to Hongkong, which is his new home…
Open clarity.
In the late 1920s, 28-year-old German accountant Fritz Mühlenweg embarks on a trip with Swedish explorer Sven Hedin…
The papal spy.
In the mid-13th century, a few years after the Mongol attacks on Eastern Europe, Italian cleric Giovanni da Pian del Carpine gets a mission from the Pope…
For the king.
In the middle of the 13th century, a Franciscan monk called William of Rubruck gets dispatched to Mongolia by his king, Louis IX of France…
The guy with the boot.
In 1893, at the height of the Great Game between Tsarist Russia and the British Empire, Swedish explorer Sven Hedin decides to follow in the footsteps of Ferdinand von Richthofen (who coined the term “Silk Road”) and Nikolai Przhevalsky and explore the Chinese Northwest…
Racist explorer.
In 1870s, at a time when Imperial Russia is rapidly expanding into Central Asia, geologist Nikolai Przhevalsky gladly accepts a mission from the government: to explore and map the Mongolian and Tibetan regions of China…
The ultimate travelogue is a bit slow.
In the 13th century, Marco Polo, a merchant’s son from Venice, accompanies his dad and his uncle on a decades-long trip to China and back…