travel

Chronicles the efforts of seventeenth-century explorer Padre Diego Rivadeneira to find and transport a fortune in gold to Spain, explaining how his first two ships were destroyed, what he was carrying when they sank, how twentieth century divers found the wreck, and what they are doing to preserve it.

The author relates her visit to Northern Ireland where she interviewed Protestants and Catholics and recorded their feelings growing up in a country torn apart by religious and political conflict.

Introduces the life and accomplishments of Italian explorer Marco Polo, who journeyed to Asia in the 1200s, became friends with Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongolian Empire, and served him as an official messenger to other nations.

The story of four sportsmen who camp and kayak in the Aleutian Islands.

The Endurance left England for Antarctica in August, 1914 with polar explorer Ernest Shackelton and twenty-seven men on board. By January 1915 the Endurance had become locked inside an island of ice. For ten months the ice-moored Endurance drifted northwest before it was finally crushed. Then the true test of survival began for Shackleton and his men and they struggled to survive for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas. Their ordeal ended only after a miraculous journey by Shackleton and a skeleton crew over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.

Author Bill Bryson provides an account of his experiences hiking the Appalachian Trail with a childhood friend, telling of how they survived a blizzard, got lost, and had encounters with eccentric characters, and rude yuppies along the way.

Chronicles the author's 11,855-mile, 262-day bicycle trip through Africa, during which he and his team traveled through fourteen countries and encountered sandstorms, unfamiliar foods, and tropical heat, as well as African hospitality, kindness, and beautiful scenery.

Draws from newspaper memoirs and letters of survivors to tell the story of the Donner Party, who, encouraged by reports of an easy short-cut through the Sierra Nevada mountains, set out from Illinois in 1846 with dreams of the good life in California and become trapped by a blizzard that claims over thirty lives.

A musician and naturalist describes how the noise of humans is drowning out the sounds of nature and paints a picture of the relationship and connection between natural sounds and music that is becoming increasingly difficult to hear.