Book info

• Title The Reluctant Traveller
• Author Bill Lumley
• Year 2010
• Genre Travel

A team of keen, adventurous climbing enthusiasts is headed by truck around the world, looking for obscure mountain peaks to conquer. Meanwhile, in a London pub, author Bill Lumley, a self-confessed coward, drunkenly agrees to join the most treacherous leg of the trip - hiking hundreds of miles through armed-bandit territory into a world of landmines, tanks, ferocious weather and snakes. His mission in life - to avoid leaving the comfort of Bethnal Green - is replaced by an urgent need to escape Ethiopia as quickly and safely as possible. A hilarious account of a man struggling to save himself from possible death - and any form of exercise.

Thoughts

The premise of this spoke to me, as I think of myself of something of a reluctant traveller. I like to see new and exciting things, but I very much enjoy my home comforts. Here we have the tale of Bill who, for some reason, is talked into going with his friend to climb a mountain in Ethiopia - a mountain that has a location no one is quite sure of. Some even doubt whether it actually exists.

So we follow Bill and his friend Gar as they arrive in Ethiopia and search out this mythical mountain, hearing every moan and groan and gripe from the author as we go along. This is where it gets tricky because it’s a fine line between amusing anecdotes about how difficult this adventure was, and a reluctance that borders on rudeness to the host country. The book crosses the line several times, but always manages to bring it back again, although I was often left off thinking a) why did you agree to this and b) why don‚’t you just come home?

Overall, it was a good read but really only for those who wouldn’t be frustrated for someone doing something and hating every minute of it.

Rating: 3 / 5