John Hare is a star author and one of the most well-known explorers of his generation. The Gobi is a perennially fascinating part of the world - a desert that people love to read about. China, the environment/natural world, exploration and discovery: broad and topical appeal.The Gobi is the largest, coldest and driest desert in Asia. Its shifting sands conceal ancient cities, 3,000-year-old mummies, dinosaur bones and areas where no man has set foot. It is also the last place on earth where the wild Bactrian camel clings to survival, its fragile habitat threatened by poachers and development. With the conservation of this elusive creature in mind, John Hare was inspired to venture into the wildest parts of the Chinese Gobi on an expedition during which they crossed a hundred miles of sand dunes, unexplored in recorded history. Several weeks into the journey, Hare and the team discovered, in two unmapped valleys, a population of wildlife with no experience of man.Interwoven with the account of his remarkable journey, Hare tells, for the first time, the story of an epic migration made by Kazakh nomads in flight from Chinese communists and describes the historic and current tensions between the Chinese and the indigenous Uighur population of Xinjiang.
A blend of history and high adventure, discovery and conservation, "Mysteries of the Gobi" is a unique and compelling account of modern-day exploration.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"'[a] terrific story of wild camels, Kazakh migrations, ancient mummies, lost cities, gold miners and oil speculators. 'Mysteries of the Gobi' is an exciting and important account of modern-day exploration, revealing much about the past and future of this extraordinary region.' -- Ranulph Fiennes 'This is just a fantastic piece of writing. It's travel-writing, it's story-telling, it's a camp-fire tale of memorable characters and unforgettable places, packed with thrills and spills. This is an adventure story - and this is what will surely grab you - every word of it is true...' -- Matthew Parris" "Hare brings all this, and more, to life, in a book that reprises and updates his previous one, 'the Lost Camels of Tartary.'He has an infectious eagerness to go beyond what is practical and sensible in pursuit of his aims. Accompanied by a cast of well-portrayed experts, he sees the austere beauty of these remote regions." 'A brilliant addition to studies of exploration, the wilderness and conservation. [John Hare] brings exploration up to date with commitment to a noble cause: to search for, record and save one of the world's most extraordinary animals, the wild camel. A wonderful read.' - John Man, 'Literary Review'. 'Hare???s compelling account of his expedition to the remote Chinese desert is part travelogue, part natural history. The author???s excitement and enthusiasm for a hostile, unexplored ??? and partly unmapped ??? territory is infectious, perhaps because his experience is so far removed from that of most travellers. Descriptions of the people he meets along the way bring the journey to life;' - Emmanuelle Smith, 'Financial Times'.
Auflage
Rebrand to Tauris Parke on reprint
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Illustrationen
18 in 8pp colour plate section
Maße
Höhe: 234 mm
Breite: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84511-512-8 (9781845115128)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
John Hare is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club of America. As well as living and working in Africa for many years, he has made several expeditions to the Mongolian Gobi and China's remote Xinjiang Province. He was the first foreigner to be invited to visit Lop Nur for over 45 years and the first foreigner in recorded history to cross the Gashun Gobi from north to south. In 1997 he founded the Wild Camel Protection Foundation and, with Chinese colleagues, established a 175,000 square kilometre Nature Reserve in Mongolia for the wild Bactrian camel. He is the author of 'The Lost Camels of Tartary' and 'Shadows across the Sahara'.
Preface * The Call of the Wild * Beyond the Dunes * Sweet as Eden is the Air * Take Flight and Follow * Hie to the Deserts Wild * Death's Shadow at the Door * Over the Unknown Pass * The Desert's Dusty Face * The Secrets of the Sands * Greater than Anyone Thinks * Appendix 1 - The Current Situation of the Uighurs in Xinjiang * Appendix 2 - The First Published Account of the Wild Bactrian Camel by Colonel Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky * Appendix 3 - Spies among the Kazakhs * Bibliography * Acknowlegements *
