When I was still climbing, mountaineering and doing my own adventure travel, I loved reading Outside Magazine and especially the stories about or by Robert Young Pelton…or RYP. Back then I wasn’t fully aware of his website or some of his other travels, I just loved reading his stories of adventure in far away places, sometimes just for the sake of the adventure. I definitely wasn’t aware of HIS non-traditional upbringing, which really seems to the made the man who he is. In a prior post, I’ve written another book review of one of his other books, “The Worlds Most Dangerous Places” and I’ve actually used that book to research several different business trips I’ve taken prior to leaving the US. The fun part is, as a kid I went to nearly a quarter of the countries in that book, never knowing that others found those countries so dangerous.
This book review is about one of Robert Young Pelton’s recent books, “The Adventurist: My Life In Dangerous Places” and originally published in 2000 by Doubleday, a division of Random House. Although originally printed 20 years ago now, I just got my copy in 2019 so it’s a newer book for me. After this review, I’ll pass it on via a free book section of a marina somewhere, so others can read it too.
I like RYP’s writing style and I like his travel style. This book covers his early upbringing and harsh schooling lessons, making his upbringing very non-traditional. It continues to take the reader through his early adult years and his transition to travel in non-traditional environments. He goes where others say you can’t go, just because people say not too. He travels smart and knows how to stay under the radar because of his experiences, making access to unusual people the norm for him. Ever wanted to meet a Taliban leader or a leader in the Northern Alliance or Sudan Resistance? RYP has…and lived. The other book I mentioned (The Worlds Most Dangerous Places), is required reading at the CIA and lots of other places and it’s a great start for folks who want to travel to out of the way places that are considered dangerous.
Stuck at home because of COVID and your US passport will only get you into like,,,,9 countries right now? This book, The Adventurist will take you to some of those places you wish you could get into but can’t…because of COVID and the travel bans. Note: The European Union as a travel destination is NOT covered in this book. Both “The Adventurist” and “The Worlds Most Dangerous Places” are available on Amazon and are on my highly recommended read list. You can get them from Amazon using the links above and LF2SF makes about two cents.
The LF2SF crew lives on a cruising sailboat out of the United States in Baja Mexico (right now). We’re hiding from both COVID and hurricanes and will soon (or have already) move north to the Bay of LA to check it out and remain till early Oct. This portion of the trip has been our plan all along but the next part after hurricane season is just a wait and see process. We need to wait and see which countries are open and where we can go once hurricane season ends. We love our readers and followers and urge you to FOLLOW US if you don’t already.
