Levison Wood

Wood walked through some pretty serious terrain (the Sahara) and came this close to dying of thirst, dangerous lands (South Sudan), and paranoid lands (Egypt). What I loved most were his conversations with Boston, Wood‘s Congolese guide who lived in Uganda, which consumed a lengthy part of his walk. Boston provided a unique perspective about so many things, but mostly from the experiences of the destitute who do what they can to survive, even if it means clearing forests to grow crops or catching and selling baby monkeys 😭 to feed their families. Climate change be damned when you have to feed your family. Such a horrible but enlightening truth—one we‘ve got to realize if we are to help create incentives NOT to clear habitats and kidnap baby animals. We‘ve got to listen & understand, or as my parents used to say, “walk a mile in their shoes.” I learned a lot. Highly recommended.… (mere)

Wood walks Central America with a Mexican friend he made when he lived in Merida, Mexico. Not as rigorous as his walking the Nile, except for their passage through the Darien Gap, an impenetrable jungle that has stopped most explorers. It was quite the struggle, but oddly took up little space in the book. What was unique to this adventure was Wood's encounters with internationals trekking to enter the US illegally and gang-plagued countries and especially when he had to employ a priest to walk him through a city who ensured his safety with the priest's contacts with the heads of the gangs. The walk occurred during the Trump/Clinton election, and those trekking north had some pretty potent opinions about Trump. This was an excellent book, but it felt much more biographical than his Nile book, and it was almost 1/3 into it before he actually got going on the walk. That's why this wasn't a five star read. I was disappointed in the narrator. His pronunciation of Spanish words was cringeworthy. I found it odd since the author, although British, had lived in Mexico, and trained in Belize when he was in the military. I would have thought the author would vet the narrator! So, skip the audio.… (mere)