Sports Travel

Like her 2011 book of a similarly-epic long trek around Lake Michigan, this grand hike on the shores of five magnificent bodies of freshwater explores the natural and human history of the Great Lakes, while raising important questions about preserving our wild places and protecting fragile ecosystems on which we all depend.

In 2009, Loreen Niewenhuis walked completely around Lake Michigan. This audiobook chronicles that journey, a 1,000-mile walk around the world's fifth-largest lake. The audiobook explores both the geology of the lake and the measure of a person - a woman, married, mother of two sons (who joined her for portions of the walk). But most of the walk was done solo, an adventure in discovery of self and place. Niewenhuis conveys a sense of the magnitude of the lake she loves, a place so elemental to the four Midwestern states that form its shores.

This charming account of the voyage of two men in a small boat half way round the world from Plymouth to New Zealand in 1953 is a rare insight into a time, not long ago, when sailors had no GPS, electronics, radio or any of the mod cons that we take for granted today. Without lifejacket or a life raft, they 'just took what came along', hand steering all the way, navigating by sextant, hand-cranking their engine and using oil lamps for light at night and for navigation. Sailors will be staggered how primitive conditions were only a few decades ago, even though it was the norm at the time.

Michael Simkins is the ultimate Sunday cricketer - passionate, obsessive, technically inept and hopelessly deluded. When an injury rules him out, he decides to set off on an odyssey across the counties of England. It's a journey that begins at the birthplace of cricket, takes in the burial site of his favourite ground and even stops along the way to flirt with the love child of WG Grace and Kerry Katona that is Twenty20. It ends with the ultimate cricketing zenith - returning to the field of play to bowl an over to Freddie Flintoff in fading light in front of a capacity crowd.

As a journalist for the Independent, Emma Bamford is swept along with the London rat race, lost amongst the egos of Fleet Street. Surrounded by budget cuts and bullies, the thrill of a breaking news story is no longer enough. And at 31, still struggling to get to a fourth date and surrounded by friends settling down to married life and babies, Emma decides to grasp her life by the roots and reclaim her freedom...by running away to sea and joining a complete stranger (and his cat) on a yacht in Borneo.

In the late 1990s, John Pollack was working as a Washington speechwriter when, frustrated by the cynicism and hypocrisy on Capitol Hill, he quit his job to pursue a boyhood dream: to build a boat made entirely of wine corks and take it on an epic journey. Cork Boat tells the story of Pollack's improbable quest. Overcoming one obstacle after another, he convinces skeptical bartenders to save their corks, corrals a brilliant but disorganized partner, and eventually cajoles more than one hundred volunteers who help build the boat until their fingers bleed.

In the late 1960s, MacInnes led the Glencoe Mountain Rescue team and together they developed innovative techniques and equipment in order to save lives - often risking their own in the process - whether night or day, and always at a moment’s notice. He was a central figure in the rescue during the 1963 New Year tragedy in the Cuillins on the Isle of Skye, and led groundbreaking rescues on Buichaille Etive Mor, Ben Nevis, Bidean nam Bian and many other legendary Scottish mountains.

Mit einem Esel nach Portugal reisen? Für Lotta Lubkoll kein Problem! Sie hat ihren Bus so umgebaut, dass ihr bester Kumpel Jonny mitfahren kann. Für die beiden geht es einmal um die Iberische Halbinsel, wo Lotta früher mit ihrer Familie überwintert hat. Mithilfe eines Fotos will sie sich auf die Suche nach einem fast vergessenen Ort ihrer Kindheit machen. Auf dem Weg dorthin erleben die zwei Freunde allerhand Abenteuer, von Schießübungen des französischen Militärs bis hin zu einem heftigen Sturm in Spanien. Sie treffen auf begeisterte Bulli- und Eselfans und finden ihren ganz eigenen Rhythmus on the road.

Golf resorts - it's a specialized niche for a savvy group that knows what it wants. What they want is golf, so the Nicols have devoted the audio to yardage and par, green fees, and special course features for hundreds of golf courses from Canada to Costa Rica. But there are other facets to consider as well, because the point here is to take a vacation, a golf vacation, where you get to luxuriate in your scenic vistas, eat your sumptuous meals, and play your 18 holes, too.

Von Fernweh und Meersucht: Segelgeschichten zum Träumen und Staunen. Herbe Abenteurer, harte Regatta- und Einhandsegler, einfache Hobbyskipper mit dem ersten eigenen Boot – kaum ein Sport bringt so viele unterschiedliche Charaktere, Altersklassen und Biografien zusammen wie das Segeln. In seinem neuen Buch versammelt Marc Bielefeld die Geschichten der unterschiedlichsten Segelpersönlichkeiten. Eine exzentrische Baronin aus dem 19. Jahrhundert steht hier neben dem jungen Matthias Sierck, der statt des Traumjobs nach dem Studium lieber das Ruder in die Hand nimmt.

Journey: On Mastering Ukemi is an allegorical tale meant for those individuals who have already learned the basics of ukemi - attack and the relentless heart. Yet beginners will find it fascinating as well, because Linden Sensei brings all his storytelling skills to bear upon this amazing journey. This is the second book in the Mastership Series by Aikido Master Daniel Linden. Mr. Linden continues his enigmatic and powerful instruction with an allegorical tale of test and triumph in the high Himalayan mountains in Nepal.

In this abridgement of River-Horse, the pre-eminent chronicler of American back roads - who has given us the classics Blue Highways and Prairyerth - recounts his singular voyage through American waters from sea to sea. Along the route, he offers a lyrical and ceaselessly fascinating shipboard perspective on the country and its rivers, lakes, canals, and landscapes.

Kayak adventurer Jim Payne can’t stop running away from home. After solo trips on American and English waterways, recounted in One Inch above the Water (2008) and Discovering England (2012), Payne shares four more harrowing and humorous adventures in Worlds to Discover: Facing angry bulls and breached dams on the Connecticut River.

"You'll never make it!" With encouragement like that, author Mickey Thomas, in a fit of youthful testosterone, and with meticulous inattention to detail, decided to embark on a once-in-a lifetime 3,400-mile bicycle trek from Montana to Alaska. While riding through knee problems, illness, homesickness, infatuation, bad weather, and meeting a host of quirky and hilarious characters, Mickey, and his group rides over some of the roughest roads and most desolate scenery in North America. Along the way, he discovers an inner strength as well as a new physical stamina he never had.

In her mid-30s Rebecca Loncraine was diagnosed with breast cancer. Two years later, and after months of gruelling treatment, she flew in a glider for the first time. In that engineless plane, soaring 3,000 feet over the landscape of her childhood with only the rising thermals to take her higher and the birds to lead the way, she fell in love. If illness meant Rebecca had lost touch with the world around her, gliding showed her a way to learn to live again.

Emotions run high in this true polar adventure. It's a story of triumph, harrowing danger, and outright adventure. In 2012, Aaron Linsdau left his entire life behind. He told his family and girlfriend that he wanted to pursue a dream to do something no other American had ever accomplished. He wanted to be the first to ski from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back without aid or support. Linsdau takes the listener to Antarctica.

The plan is simple. George and Ben have three weeks to cycle 1000 miles from the bottom of England to the top of Scotland. There's just one small problem - they have no bikes, no clothes, no food, and no money. Setting off in just a pair of Union Jack boxer shorts, they attempt to rely on the generosity of the British public for everything from food to accommodation, clothes to shoes, and bikes to beer.

Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoscheses, a degenerative eye disorder that would leave him blind by the age of 13. But Erik was determined to rise above this devastating disability and lead a fulfilling and exciting life. In this poignant and inspiring memoir, he shares his struggle to push past the limits imposed on him by his visual impairment - and by a seeing world.

Every journey has its stories. Beginning with Enid Blyton and childhood in the Isle of Purbeck, Peter Fiennes embarks on a unique exploration of Britain. He follows in the footsteps of some our greatest writers, tracing the paths recorded in their books, journals and diaries, and looks for the country they knew. How much has time changed us? And has it been for better, or worse? Are we trapped in the past?

This time our intrepid explorer hikes the breathtaking 186 miles of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. A stunning and dramatic landscape of soaring rocky clifftops and sprawling white sands. Join him as he encounters a plethora of amazing wildlife from peregrine falcons to razorbills, from seals to wild ponies. Not to mention the dashed impressive bracing vistas and stormy seas, of course.