The Life of My ChoiceWilfred Thesiger is the last of the great British eccentric explorers, a legendary figure, renowned for his travels through some of the most inaccessible places on earth. As a child in Abyssinia he watched the victorious armies of Ras Tafari returning from hand-to-hand battle, their prisoners in chains; at the age of twenty-three he made his first expedition into the country of the Danakil, a murderous race among whom a man's status in the tribe depended on the number of men he had killed and castrated. His widely acclaimed books, 'Arabian Sands' and 'The Marsh Arabs' tell of his two famous sojourns in the Empty Quarter and the Marshes of southern Iraq. But Thesiger's true character and motives have until now remained an enigma. In this, his autobiography, he highlights the people who most profoundly influenced him and the events which enabled him to lead the life of his choice. "One of the very few people who in our time could be put on the pedestal of the great explorers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." "A treasure galleon built to the same specifications as 'Arabian Sands' and 'The Marsh Arabs' ... it is the record of a man magnificently and unabashedly out of step with his times." "He is, unquestionably, one of the greatest travellers the British have ever produced, the last of our recognizable primitives. He also writes with much distinction and honesty." |
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... feet across . Soon after leaving the Gagada plain we entered the valley of the Aluli , and four hours later came on two small acacia trees in leaf , which we cut down for the camels ; but by now they were almost too exhausted to eat ...
... feet . We poled across the lagoon ; the water was six to eight feet deep and on the far side of the lagoon , about three hundred yards away , more Nuer were massed in the shallows . As we drove the hippo in that direction , they tried ...
... feet , with cavernous mouth , enormous teeth and angry , pig - like eyes . I hurled my spear between its jaws . This turned it , and with all my strength I drove my other spear into its body behind the shoulder . After that , each time ...
Contents
List of Maps | 7 |
Introduction | 15 |
Arrival in Addis Ababa | 23 |
Copyright | |
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