Walking with Ghosts in Papua New Guinea

This memoir of hiking the South Pacific island's notorious Kokoda Trail is "an absorbing account of a physically and spiritually challenging journey" (Kirkus Reviews).

Acclaimed travel writer Rick Antonson is renowned for his adventures in exotic, remote, and rugged places from the ancient city of Timbuktu to the top of Turkey's Mount Ararat. Now he has traversed the notorious Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea, a country some call "the last wild place on earth."

The trail is a narrow, sixty-mile footpath featuring rough jungle, 6,000 feet in elevation change, and punishing weather extremes. In a country unfairly locked in Western misperceptions, the track is inhospitable terrain yet home to hospitable indigenous peoples, who live among the rusting reminders of the Japanese, Australian, and American armies that clashed in some of the deadliest protracted combat of World War II. In Walking With Ghosts in Papua New Guinea, Antonson shares a journey of physical and mental endurance in his inimitable way, in the company of a mixed band of resolute adventurers, blending fascinating historical context with the tribulations of unexpected discoveries in faraway lands.

"An evocative and perceptive travel writer." -Booklist

Auteur

Rick Antonson is the author of several books, including the travel memoirs Full Moon Over Noah's Ark, Route 66 Still Kicks, and To Timbuktu for a Haircut. Antonson is past chair of Destination International, based in Washington, D.C. and past deputy chair of the Pacific Asia Travel Association based in Bangkok, and the former president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Texte du rabat

Acclaimed travel writer Rick Antonson (Full Moon Over Noah's Ark) tackles his most challenging adventure yet: a formidable trail through the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea.

Rick Antonson has traveled to parts of the world that are not simply exotic but sometimes damned near inaccessible. He has climbed to the summit of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, traveling beyond to Iraq and Iran and Armenia. He has undertaken an improbable overland journey to the ancient city of Timbuktu, an enlightening look into efforts to preserve the city's priceless manuscripts. Now he has traversed the notorious Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea, a country some call "the last wild place on earth."

The trail is a narrow, 60-mile footpath featuring rough jungle, 6,000 feet in elevation change, and punishing weather extremes. In a country unfairly locked in Western misperceptions, the track is inhospitable terrain yet home to hospitable indigenous peoples, who live among the rusting reminders of the Japanese, Australian, and American armies that clashed in some of the deadliest protracted combat of World War II.

In Walking With Ghosts in Papua New Guinea, Antonson shares a journey of physical and mental endurance in his inimitable way, in the company of a mixed band of resolute adventurers, blending fascinating historical context with the tribulations of unexpected discoveries in faraway lands.