The Power of Nature and What Comes From a Quest

After taking a break from new material last month in Perceptive Travel and doing a Dark Tourism issue, we’re back to our usual monthly online magazine schedule. This time we have four new narrative travel stories from wandering book authors and reviews of three books that came out recently.

Sometimes we end up with a theme running through a few different stories, purely by happenstance. This month we’ve got three travelers’ tales about the power of nature to soothe, heal, inspire, and hone your senses. Then one about the unexpected side results of a travel quest.

Julia Hubbel takes the power of nature to the most extreme by spending a whole month riding through the wilderness on a horse—or often leading it along a rough passage she has to traverse on foot. She joins a tour exploring one of the most remote forested sections of North America. That would be the the Muskwa-Kechika Wilderness of British Colombia. No cell signal, no internet connection, but no artificial noise or multitasking either. See A Digital Detox While Connecting With Nature: Four Weeks Unplugged in Remote Canada.

Lonely Planet guidebook editor and author Megan Eaves wrote about teaching in China long ago in Perceptive Travel, but this time she gets contemplative while walking in the fields and forests where poets walked long ago. See Footsteps of Frost: The Poet’s Path in England.

Joining us for the first time is Heidi Siefkas, an author who has been to Cuba dozens of times. This time she heads to a certain area to go hiking but ends up finding unplanned adventures along the way and behind the wheel of a classic car motoring through the countryside. See Shifting Gears in Baracoa, Cuba.

James Michael Dorsey only sees a little bit of nature in Jordan on a trip he looks back on from decades ago. Instead he spends part of his time on a quest to find some pillows that the Jordanians think he’s got terrible taste to pursue. His local guide is packing heat and has an ear turned to potential trouble. He may or may not be connected to the Palestine Liberation Organization. See My Palestinian Pillows.

Susan Griffith gives the rundown on three new travel books, including the latest from yours truly.

Get a Travel Backpack for the Modern Age

We give away something cool for travelers each month. In September we ran a retrospective issue with past stories, so no gear prize, but three lucky readers will be receiving a paperback copy of the 5th edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations, which just came out this month.

We are back to the travel gear scene again though, something useful for the road. This month we’re giving away this 28-liter  Transfer Pack from New Zealand gear company Kathmandu. This is not meant to carry all your belongings, but rather function as a day pack and a place to keep your laptop and your plane day items. There is a removable compartment where you would put in everything you want to keep together for a long plane ride: chargers, cords, earbuds, eye mask, earplugs, passport, what else?

To score this cool Kathmandu bag and get a shot at future gear, join our e-mail issue update community. Then watch for the entry instructions near the beginning of each month. You can also follow us on Facebook and pay close attention to our feed for instructions, even if you missed this month’s newsletter. This is not some “I will never win” lottery exercise in futility. The odds are so good with Perceptive Travel that some readers have won twice!

If you’re already on it, great. Just go check out the new issue here for the power of nature, a travel quest, and book reviews.