Explorer Memoirs

Peter Pond, a fur trader, explorer, and amateur mapmaker, spent his life ranging much farther than Milford, Connecticut, where he was born and died (1740-1807). He traded around the Great Lakes, on the Mississippi and the Minnesota Rivers, in the Canadian Northwest, and was a partner in Montreal’s North West Company. Knowing 18th-century North America on a scale that few others did, Pond drew some of the earliest maps of western Canada. David Chapin presents Pond’s life as part of a generation of traders who came of age between the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution.

In ihren drei fesselnden Afrikareisegeschichten schildert Patricia Dietrich ihren waghalsigen Versuch, den Kilimandscharo zu bezwingen, die geheimnisvollen Berggorillas in Ruanda aufzusuchen und sich allein durch die Weiten Tansanias zu wagen. Die Autorin erzählt von genau diesen aufregenden eigenen Abenteuern in Tansania, Uganda und Ruanda. Die Abenteurerin entführt Sie in eine Welt lebensbedrohlicher Erlebnisse, die sie so spannend schildert, dass man sich mitten in einem packenden Krimi wähnt.

Rekordhitze, Schlangen, Erdrutsche und Taifune halten Christine Thürmer in Japan, Taiwan und Südkorea ordentlich auf Trab. Auf ihren dreizehn Trails stößt sie auf buddhistische Tempel und Shinto-Schreine von einzigartiger Schönheit, verspeist eine Überdosis Kimchi, zupft Blutegel von ihren Beinen und erlebt das schwerste Erdbeben in Taiwan seit vierzig Jahren! Einfühlsam erzählt sie von der Wanderung in Japan entlang der vom Tsunami 2011 zerstörten Küste, spricht mit Überlebenden und läuft im Abstand von lediglich vier Kilometern um den havarierten Reaktor herum.

This audiobook collection brings you the lives of the world's greatest explorers and adventurers – told in vivid, five-minute portraits. From fearless sea captains to daring desert wanderers, from polar pioneers to sky-breaking aviators – discover 27 extraordinary individuals who reshaped maps and minds alike. Each short biography offers a powerful glimpse into their achievements, risks, and legacies. Perfect for curious listeners, history lovers and fans of epic real-life stories.

At the age of sixty, and having lived with Parkinson’s disease for over ten years, Guy Deacon CBE set out on one last adventure: to drive solo from his home in the UK 18,000 miles and through twenty-five countries to Cape Town on the southern tip of Africa. This incredible journey, across Europe and down the full length of Africa, took the former British Army officer over twelve months. Along the way, he broke down five times, underwent one emergency evacuation, and took 3,650 prescription pills.

John C. Frémont was the most celebrated explorer of his era. In 1842, on the first of five expeditions he would lead to the Far West, Frémont and a small party of men journeyed up the Kansas and Platte Rivers to the Wind River Range in Wyoming. At the time, virtually this entire region was known as the Great Desert, and many Americans viewed it and the Rocky Mountains beyond as natural barriers to the United States.

Al Mennie, internationaler Big-Wave-Surfer und Mental Health Advocate, teilt seine Reise durch die Gewässer des Nordatlantiks, sein Wissen über die gesundheitlichen Vorteile nächtlichen Schwimmens und wie er seinen „Mond" fand – etwas, das hell in seinem Leben leuchtet. Al kombiniert motivierende Texte mit eindrucksvoller Erzählkunst und gibt den Leser:innen Werkzeuge an die Hand, um selbst durch die Dunkelheit zu navigieren – buchstäblich und metaphorisch.

Brendan Cullen manages Kars Station, a 10,000-head sheep property 65 kilometres outside Broken Hill, New South Wales. In 2022, despite his nearest beach being more than 600 kilometres away, he swam the English Channel. Taking up swimming was part of Brendan's recovery from severe depression, an illness that had seen him cope in highly unhealthy ways–drinking, overwork, being emotionally absent–for years. But then he found the strength to walk through the doors of Broken Hill Hospital and ask for help.

A wild adventure on horseback, beyond the Mississippi River into America's far west of 1832. Washington Irving, author of the “The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” joins a group of inexperienced rangers, hunters and an assortment of colorful characters on a trip into the unsettled prairies. Their goal: meeting Native Americans, hunting buffalo and getting in trouble.

A fearless and funny memoir about love, loss, adventure, and the photographs we take to remember who we are. The Love Offensive travels from a Massachusetts childhood to wanderlust-fueled trips across the world — and into the heart of what it means to lose and find yourself again. Through humor, grief, friendship, family, and art, Tara tells a story about the things that break us, the things that save us, and the extraordinary ways we learn to keep going.

A River Is Made is a true story of a life carried across borders, wars, and generations, told through the eyes of its author, Fazal Moneer Adil. From Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the UAE to the United States, it traces the journey of an Afghan refugee from war to belonging in America.

Grandpa's Adventures in the US Navy: Soul Searching on the Way to Mars by Jerry Werner is a captivating memoir that takes listeners on an extraordinary journey through the life of the author, Jerry Werner. This book, set against the backdrop of rural Wisconsin in the 1950s and 60s, chronicles Jerry's inspiring quest to become an astronaut, his determination to overcome daunting odds, and his unwavering pursuit of a dream that seemed out of reach.

For famed cinematographer, adventurer, and mountaineer David Breashears, the terrifying experiences on Mount Everest during the deadly 1996 season became the defining moment of his life. By 1995, Breashears had already twice reached Mt. Everest's summit. Then he faced the greatest challenge of his life: to scale the 29,028-foot peak while hauling a giant IMAX camera to film the documentary Everest.

In 1941, a young Harvard-educated classicist named Varian Fry arrived in occupied France on a daring mission to rescue more than 2,000 of Europe's leading writers, artists, and intellectuals from the Nazis. Hounded by the Gestapo, he smuggled Marchel Duchamp, Marc Chagall, Hannah Arendt and dozens of other 20th century cultural luminaries out of France and brought them to America. So why did even the people Fry saved want to forget him?

In 2015, high on the side of Mount Everest, I experienced the darkest days of my life to date. Little did I realize that the darkest day was still to come four years later. But this also led to me discovering the truth about who I was, and what I wanted out of life. It took a life of Misadventure to discover the answers.

This audiobook is a deeply personal narrative recounting the author's survival of a catastrophic disaster, highlighting the trauma, survivor's guilt, and the vital role of the villagers in rescue efforts, while reflecting on the enduring impact of the event over decades and the importance of sharing such stories to honor those lost and the resilience of humanity.

Girl in Flight by Cat Buchanan is a gripping and poignant memoir that takes listeners on a whirlwind journey through the glitz and chaos of Manhattan and Hollywood in the 1960s and early 70s. George and Meyera Buchanan have everything—lavish holidays, private planes, classic cars, and luxury homes—except the one thing they truly desire: a baby. After adopting Cat, their marriage crumbles, igniting a fierce custody battle that spans coast to coast, from Malibu to the Hamptons.

For years living was a fate worse than death for Dan Biddle. In a moment of someone else’s madness, he lost all meaning to his existence along with both his legs, his left eye, his spleen and all hearing in his left ear. His body and mind were devastated on 7 July 2005, during the worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil. It took ten seconds to disassemble him. It’s taken twenty years for him to find the inner peace and brutal honesty reveal his daily battle to go on surviving.

Après leur lutte contre le braconnage relatée dans L’Œil de l’éléphant, Mark et Delia Owens poursuivent leurs travaux de préservation de la faune zambienne. Dans leur campement, sentant arriver la fin de leurs aventures, ils racontent leurs parcours de zoologues et leurs vingt-trois années passées dans la savane africaine. Quelles raisons ont poussé ces deux jeunes étudiants américains à se tourner vers la protection des animaux ? Le récit de leur vocation se mêle aux barrissements des éléphants dans la magnifique vallée de la Luangwa, invitant au voyage et au dépaysement.

As a teenager, in a fit of rage toward her father, Jan pits herself against a steep rock face near their cottage. At the top, fired up by the victory, she sets her sights on the improbable dream of climbing mountains. By age 20, she's a nomadic climber with a magnetic attraction to misadventures and the wrong men. Jan finally finds the love of her life, an affable Banff climber. When he is killed in an avalanche in Alaska, a grieving Jan finds comfort in the arms of another extreme alpinist. Before long they are married, with a baby on the way.