Search results for ""Author Rick Antonson""

A captivating journey blending memoir, history, and biography that takes the reader on one of the world's most famous trains and tells of carving the dramatic route it follows, while pondering other international railways through the eyes of travellers past and present.Rick Antonson has ridden trains in more than thirty-five countries—but almost everything he thinks he knows about train travel changes when he boards the Rocky Mountaineer with his ten-year-old grandson, Riley. As they wind over trestles and through tunnels, each mile of track uncovers stories of dynamite and discovery, surveyors and schemers, explorers and visionaries, and the people who helped to build Canada against the odds of geography and politics. Surrounded by a wild landscape that sparks imagination, fellow passengers recount train travels in other countries, get nostalgic for the era of steam locomotives, and consider life’s unfinished journeys.Peppered with spirited dialogue, heartrending vignettes, and intriguing anecdotes, Train Beyond the Mountains is a travelogue with urgency: to make your travel dreams happen now. As one passenger muses, "The mistake we make is that we think we have time."

Read more less

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.

Read more less

Rick Antonson has lots of miles under his belt: from the summit of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, to the abandoned stretches of Route 66, from going to Timbuktu for a haircut, to travels in Iraq and Iran. He didn't think twice when one day a chance Australian acquaintance invited him for a "walk across the country" of Papua New Guinea.The "walk" turned out to be a grueling trek on the notorious Kokoda Trail — a narrow, 60-mile footpath featuring rough jungle, 6,000 feet in elevation change, and punishing weather extremes. The Kokoda Trail featured some of the fiercest fighting of World War II among the Australian, Japanese, and American armies. The stark history unfolds with each conquered mile, as Antonson's astute asides bring out real names and people from the faceless fog of history.Antonson sets out to understand the magnetism of Papua New Guinea, a place both misunderstood and lionised by the likes of Amelia Earhart, Errol Flynn, and Michael Rockefeller, whose cameos add vibrant colours to his journey. Antonson struggles with his own demons summoned by the unforgiving trail: travelling with a mostly Australian group, he catches himself sympathising with the Australian war casualties over the Japanese ones, despite being intellectually aware of the impartial horrors of war. Further, Antonson fights the temptation to carry on the sensationalist reportage of headhunting and cannibalism, the scourging stereotypes the young country is still trying to shake off. His writing shows that dated imagery in sharp contrast to today's realities, and Antonson's new-forged friendships with the expedition's porters, Bowrie, Winterford, and Woody, who represent the best of Papua New Guinea: proud of their land and eager to share it without sacrificing their dignity. Walking with Ghosts in Papua New Guinea is like the Kokoda Trail itself: a winding path that glimmers with beauty one moment, and darkness the next, illuminated by its inhabitants, both living and ghosts.

Read more less