Where the Wild Things Were: Travels of a Conservationist
In this volume of collected travel and environmental journalism, Stanley travels from Exmoor to Ecuador, India to Istanbul, and across many other routes. He is charged at by mountain gorillas, encounters pandas, tigers, blue-footed boobies and the elusive blue whale. Dauntless, he climbs Kilimanjaro, catches cold at the Glastonbury festival, tracks down his ancestors in Turkey and meets legendary environmentalists such as Jane Goodall. Behind the infectious Johnson humor, there lies the deep passion of a man who has spent his life in search of wild places and wild animals, and is committed to their defense.
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I enjoyed this book more than I expected. Stanley Johnson writes well, and is able to transfer his passion for animal conservation into his text. Worth pointing out that I didn't really know who Stanley Johnson is, other than the father of comedy act Boris and that Stanley was also a politician for a time.
The book is a collection of articles published in newspapers and magazines, all primarily with the themes of animals and conservation, which ties into travel. As can be seen from the shelf list, he travels far and wide, visiting many of the above places more than once throughout the 49 chapters of this book. Some of the articles are only a couple of pages, others run to 8 or 9 pages, but almost all are of a high enough quality to ensure a worthwhile read.
At the end, Stanley lists his five favourite places, these are Bamiyan (the standing Buddha' in Afghanistan); The Pantanal (the tropical wetlands in Brazil); Antarctica; Kahuzi-Beiga National Park (in DR Congo - gorillas) and Exmoor (UK, where he grew up and lives now). This got me thinking of what my top 5 places I have visited would be...
In no particular order: Egypt - For its historical sites, and the madness of Cairo; Pakistan - For its contrast with India (which was unlucky to miss out on this list) and its wild tribal lands; Bolivia - for its unusual and varied moonscapes; Nepal - for its amazing scenery and lovely people ; Indonesia for its incredible variation in scenery across its many islands. Unlucky to miss this list - the rest of South America, Iran, India and Turkey.
List me your five favourite travel destinations?
3.5 stars rounded up.
