2001. 222 pp, photos. Bangs former owner of Sobek, the adventure travel company and currently a tour operator and guide, has described many of his worldwide solo and group expeditions on the Internet at Expedia.com, MSNBC.com, and Mungo Park. This collection of his Internet contributions features treks in Patagonia, Indonesia, Kalimantan (Borneo), and Morocco; mountaineering in Washington State and Borneo; kayaking in Newfoundland; cycling in Burgundy; canoeing/rafting in Idaho, Tanzania, and the Northwest Territories (Canada); and other adventures.
These exploits are recounted with genuine enthusiasm, some attention to historical and cultural context, and a tincture of self-deprecating humor. However, the book fails to captivate the armchair traveler, since the narrative style, unfettered by syntactical, grammatical, or editorial precepts, is still more suited to Internet campfire conversations. Paperback, New.
MORE:These 16 adventure stories include an encounter with a hippo in a river in Tanzania, a stormy trip by canoe on the remote Blackfeather River deep in the Mackenize Mountains of Canada's Northwest Territories (100 miles south of the Arctic Circle), and a hike up Mount Adams in Washington State. He also chronicles a dangerous whitewater rafting adventure in Idaho's Selway River (where 11 participants carried 16 cases of beer because their water supply was rationed and the river water was polluted), a trek along the 500-year-old Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, a hectic bike tour through Burgundy, and a hike through the interior of Borneo, where he encountered Dayak villagers, extreme heat and humidity, leeches, snakes, and sweat bees. Bangs' madcap experiences are a pleasure to read about; on the other hand, actually being there could prove a bit too risky.
