The last book by Riaan Manser until he goes off on another crazy adventure and then writes about it for us avid readers…
Out of all of his books, this one was the most different. This book documents the travel around Iceland on a Kayak with another person. This is not a solo journey as his others had been and it was interesting to read about they dynamics of the crew and his kayak partner-Dan Skinstad.
Most of you will have watched the TV series, I managed to catch a couple of episodes but didn’t watch the whole show. I enjoyed reading the book because even though Riaan was writing from his viewpoint, he managed to bring across the feelings of the whole crew. There seemed to be a fair amount of antagonism and antipathy towards Riaan because of the way that he handled his relationship on the water with Dan, but I have to admit that I can completely see why he worked the way he worked even if there could of been a ‘nicer’ way of doing it.
What struck me was that the crew and up to a point, Dan, didn’t quite realise what Riaan had vowed to do and how very difficult doing it was. To me, I think that when you have a strong person who has done bizarre and crazy things, one forgets that they can be just as vulnerable as the next person and so animosity comes to the fore when one sees the dogged determination come out in ways that one ‘doesn’t like’.
Sometimes, I think that as humans we can be too sensitive instead of just getting to the nitty gritty and getting on with it.
I did enjoy this but Around Africa on my Bicycle is by far my favourite of all his adventures to date. (but I have been re-inspired to get myself to Iceland at some point in my life! It is one place, that I have wanted to go for years, now, I need to make it happen!)
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