READING TIPS

Stories You Shouldn’t Miss — Volume VIII

October edition of my favorite reads

This month it is more obvious than the previous ones that I am a travel writer who finds interest in mostly travel essays. While I do read other topics as well, all my selected stories in this piece are somewhat travel-related.

When I originally began this series of highlighting my favorite reads each month, I wanted to keep it at bay with five stories so as not to discourage my readers from the load I mention and convince them to read them all.

Anyhow, with more and more high-quality articles I get to read, I struggle more and more to keep the list small. For the second month in a row, I settled on ten stories.

I still hope you do read them as they are worth every minute. Make yourself a cup of tea, lean back in your armchair and enjoy some relaxing time.

I’m beginning this selection with an article that wasn’t published in October but a few years back. I only stumbled upon the reader and this article this month and couldn’t hold back but share it here.

Rebecca is sharing a story about surviving in the raw wilderness of Africa at a time when I wasn’t even born yet. Her authentic experience written down in a captivating narrative had me with the first sentence.

“The third day of our stay I was practicing yoga in the hut and in a headstand when a slender, bright green snake uncoiled from a rafter above and dangled down to my eye level, checking me out. I softly called out to Anna for help.” — Rebecca Romanelli

And while we are on the African continent, I have one more wildlife story to share of a fairly new writer, a least new to me. He first drew my attention sharing a picture of a tree I identified the location from immediately.

Warren has so many great wildlife stories to share accompanied by stunning photographs but this one stood out to me. A hunt in the wild is always extraordinary.

“The stalking cat stayed low, her body elongated and camouflaged below the tops of the grass. When the Oryx had its head down the lion would take three or four quick steps forward then drop. Smooth and precise.” — Warren Thurlow

Switching continents to Asia, Matthew caught my attention sharing his experience on exploring a market in Northern India by boat. It’s a slow way of traveling and so is this journey.

“I didn’t even want to bring my camera to my eyes, out of fear that I would be targeted and questioned. But now I wish that I hadn’t been paralyzed by that fear, and had an image to relay to whoever reads this.” — Matthew David

It’s another story on India and somewhat tea is again involved but so is rum. A story about how and why we travel the remote regions on Earth and what experiences we might have when following vague directions from other travelers or locals.

“It was in a roadside shack where we sampled both, sitting on tiny stools and watching the man stretch chai by pouring it from great heights. The way he shifted it from one pot to the other with such accuracy was almost acrobatic.” — Paul S. Marshall

To me, it is incredibly exciting, fascinating and inspiring to see someone who is double my age travel the world without plans and alone the way Adrienne does. With no fear, lots of curiosity and openness to new cultures and foods, she experiences places locals take her to and makes friends along the way.

While she is currently traveling through Eastern Europe, she shares in this story just a normal day abroad. But what sounds normal when you’re traveling through Eastern Europe?

“I asked them what did he say. One of the guys translated that they are closed today and commiserated with me when I said I was really hungry. He dumped his friends and took me to lunch.” — Adrienne Beaumont

Before I even knew I was going to move to New Zealand, I was hooked on his writing already but now more than ever, I don’t miss any of what Tim has to share on his experiences in the country.

I saved again two of his articles and can’t delete one of them as they are as different and interesting as they could be.

The first one is sharing some insights into a very special corner of the country where the French once touched down. Yes, you did read that correctly.

“There’s a death-defying “summit road” that careens along the ridge-top of the Banks Peninsula to Akaroa. It was every bit as harrowing as our drives through New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Guardrails? Who needs them? Fortunately for us, there was no one else on the road that day, but for a few blasé sheep, to hear Teresa screaming from the passenger seat as we slithered around each hairpin turn.” — Tim Ward, Mature Flâneur

And the second story just had me once again bursting out laughing when he mentioned a situation where he describes seeing his wife as incredibly adventurous standing on the boat while she felt very different right then.

His captivating travel narrative and his authenticity in telling moments he experienced just blows my mind.

Teresa turned and looked at me like I was crazy.

“I was terrified,” she blurted out. “I was paralyzed. I was sure this is how I die.”

While I always enjoy reading Jillian’s stories, this one resonated with me a lot. Being always on the move, traveling, seeing and experiencing a lot does have its toll on your mental health at times. And then always feeling forced to show everyone you live the life you absolutely love and smiling all around doesn’t help.

“While most will never understand what we went through, we can see now that it had a very profound effect on our overall mental health and well-being. And I’m so very glad that I have finally given myself the space and time to recognize it.” — Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages

And she wrote another one I also had to highlight and share as it brings a topic to daylight many remain in darkness and fear about. Without wanting to downplay all the bad that is happening in the world, She does mention that not the whole world is at war even if the media does display it at times like that.

“Of course, it is important to stay current and pay attention to things that are going on. But let’s keep things in perspective. Most importantly, let’s check in on ourselves and deal with our own fears. From a place of peace and calm, we can then make sound decisions on how we feel about the rest of the world.” — Jillian

Continuing on the topic of social media and the distractions of our online world, I do have another very interesting essay to share. It goes deep into the world we live in now and why we do the things we do.

Are we choosing our holiday destinations because of where we want to go and what we want to experience or is it because we want that specific Instagram shot?

Kristi spent her birthday deep in the Canadian Rockies experiencing temperatures she’d normally avoid at all cost while being completely cut off from cellphone reception. And yet, reading about her experience I wouldn’t hesitate to go there right now.

“You might bundle up at night and go outside to watch 8 trillion stars in the darkest sky you’ve ever seen. That’s roughly 7.999 trillion more than you’d see from your balcony in the city. It is absolutely stunning how black the wilderness is at night.” — Kristi Keller

I know, these were more stories than usual and some longer ones in between but I promise you, all of them are worth a read. Thank you for reading through this list and as always, I appreciate hearing your feedback.

And in case you missed last month’s selection, here is the link:

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