Travelling for the hell of it.

Biographies & Memoirs, Travel

By Nick Gerrard

Publisher : Jottify.com/Skoobebooks.co.uk

ABOUT Nick Gerrard

nick gerrard
 One time Chef, activist, union organiser, teacher, traveller, musician, eco-lodge owner in Malawi. Lived in 6 countries. One son, one tractor!

Description

A Kind of travel book. Short Stories, journalistic pieces, memoirs and opinions; From a life time of travelling and living abroad. Some horrible, some funny, some serious. And hopefully interesting. From running Eco-lodges in Malawi and Czech to Voluteering in Europe and getting drunk in Brazil. Food, Eco-tourism, football and Aid projects, back-packing and more.

Contents:

Introduction.

Travel writing.

Chapter 1. Paris.

Chapter 2. Bloody backpackers.

Chapter 3. Truckers and travellers!

Chapter 4. Barcelona.

Chapter 5. WOOFing.

Chapter 6. If you really want to learn about a country, go to the footy.

Chapter 7. Brazil (A short story to sum it all up)!

Chapter 8. Lisbon town.

Chapter 9. Mwaya beach refugees. (Living in Africa.)

Chapter 10. Africa after thoughts!

 

Chapter 11. The other side of the coin! (Or, being a Woofing host!)

Chapter 12. The backpacking years.

The diary.

Chapter 14. The road to Athens.

Chapter 15. The night we caught the train!

Chapter 16. Responsible Skiing.

Chapter 16. Sharing shoes with the German.

Chapter 17. Food, travel, slow food and the organic con!

Chapter 18. Drinking and travelling.

Chapter 19. The bottle runs dry in Brno.

Chapter 20. Eco Tourism.

Chapter 21. And so, to Czech!

Chapter 22. After a year and a half.

Chapter 23. Volunteering and aid in the third world.

Chapter 24. The future.

It’s a bit of a weird thing to do really, when you think about it. It’s all basically autobiographical (Paul Theroux quotes Pablo Almodovar as saying ‘Any writing that isn’t autobiographical is essentially plagiarism.’) But I have never really wanted to write an autobiography: Never wanted to put down tales of the punk days, the drinking and drugs of my youth, the political activism and god-forbid that I would ever write about my childhood! The reason I wanted to write about my travels was that I think I had something I wanted to say; stories that I wanted to recount. Ok, there are a lot of stories here that involve drink and drugs and a hedonistic lifestyle, but I hope that I haven’t come over all Charles Bukowski in all this. I wanted to tell about the people I’ve met, the places and situations that I have found myself in because I think they are sometimes funny, sad and sometimes frightening. And one thing for sure is that I never wanted to write about the churches and monuments I’ve been to, like a guidebook kind of thing. I also have never wanted to write of an epic journey that I have taken. (That’s a lie! I would love to have done that but never had the money, time or resources to do it.) So, I’m left with what I have; which is a whole mixture of bits and bobs and odds and sods. Little things that have meant a lot to me; small experiences, which were significant events in my life.

Burn your Lonely Planet

Feb 18, 2012 by Martin Stevenson

Writers are often told to find their ‘voice’ and Nick Gerrard has taken this to heart. I have been pleased to publish several of Nick’s articles over the years and have spent more than a few nights sitting opposite him in a pub over a few beers listening to his often hair-raising travel stories. I can tell you that Nick writes exactly as he talks. He may play fast and loose with grammar but his stories are always fascinating. Nick’s beers are now of the non-alcoholic variety but he will be the first to admit that his experiences, whether they involved gunfights in a Rio favela, building an eco-lodge in Malawi (only to wake up one night with an AK47 in his face), WHOOF-ing in Spain or chef-ing in Paris, were usually accompanied by, and often informed by, alcohol. Nick has a keen eye for sustainable travel (as evidenced by the eco-lodge he now runs with his wife in the Czech Republic) and however haphazard his journeys may appear he has always made a point of seeking out local people, learning about the area he is in, contributing to the local community and avoiding backpackers (about whom he has a lot to say).

If you think your gap-year spent backpacking across Asia was an adventure, read Nick’s book, and burn your Lonely Planet.

Martin Stevenson, Editor, More than footprints?