Bruce
Chatwin writes the introduction to this travel book, marking this book, written
in 1933, as perhaps the best written travel book ever and bemoaning the loss of
so many sights, smells and experiences to history. Starting in Venice, this is the description
of Byron’s journey to Oxiana, land of the River Oxus on the border between
Afghanistan and Russia, with much time in Persia, today’s Iran. He makes it on to India and ends back at home
in Savernake, near where I went to school, where he cryptically hands his notes
to his mother to see what she makes of it – yes, it was published! What a joy this book is to read. What writing!
His particular interest is in the ancient architecture of the lands he
travels through. Towers, tombs,
triumphal arches, even old cities, as well as mosques and mausoleums are
brought to life, some over 1000 years old.
Along the way, the vistas and people he meets and how they live are
wonderfully described. This must have
been a tough trip to make, from all perspectives. Many people helped him, some hindered,
including the Shah of Persia (not named, except as the nickname Marjoribanks)
and his administration. As ever, the
people continue their lives in spite of their leaders, just as I found in
Tehran in 2010, 77 years later. I too
visited Isfahan and marvelled at the beautiful and wonderfully constructed
mosque of Sheikh Lutfullah near the Blue Mosque and saw the stone polo goal
posts at each end of the parade ground in front. Alas, I suspect many of the monuments Byron
saw are no more, though the best are preserved as World Heritage sites,
including ancient ziggurats. Persia is a romantic, interesting, hard working,
well-educated country that still, after all its changes, deserves better
leadership. One hopes it will happen
soon. Visit if you can. It is worth it. Tragically, Robert Byron was torpedoed off
West Africa in 1941 aged just 36, while working as a correspondent. He published four travel books.
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Turkey 2013: EWRS conference, Samsun, the Datca Peninsular and Istanbul
I fear our carbon footprint is growing. This trip, part work
and part holiday, took eight flights to complete, but allowed us to see several
parts of this diverse and fascinating country.
First up, was getting to Samsun, a city we will hear more of in the
future on the northern Black Sea coast.
This was the venue for the 16th European Weed Research
Society Symposium at the Ondokuz Mayýs University. Leaving Bristol early at 06:00 we passed
through Amsterdam and Istanbul Atatürk (KLM, then Turkish Airlines) before
being picked up with others for our hotel, arriving at 22:30 local time. Do-Soon Kim from Seoul and Per Kudsk from
Denmark were at Istanbul, both editors for Weed Research. We were up early on Sunday morning as I was
teaching a course from 09:00 to 17:00 on “How to write a paper for an
international scientific Journal” ahead of the conference. I had a good group of attendees from 11 countries
and it was a successful interactive day.
That was followed by an Editorial Board meeting for Weed Research, the society journal for which I am the
Editor-in-Chief. The conference was
well-run and the social events were good, including an unexpected trip on a
small ship up and down the coast for the attendees of the entire conference.
Leaving Samsun on the Friday morning, we fly with Pegasus to
Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, then on to Bodrum near the south coast. We had hired a car cheaply and managed to
collect a slightly battered Renault Symbol outside the airport car park, signed
for it on the bonnet and headed for the hills.
Not having a great deal of power was probably a good thing, driving on
the right side of the road. We drove
north east over high hills, then south east, then south west along the Datca
Peninsular. We picked this for its
distance from holiday destinations, looking for peace and a real break. We were not disappointed, staying at the Flow
Datca Surf and Beach Club, enjoying a bit of luxury. The gardens around the pool were full of
palms, olives and flowering Bougainvillea, not far from the sea. The hot sun was ameliorated with a steady
breeze. Not that we did any, the hotel
has a well-equipped windsurfing school on the beach, with people batting over
the waves most of the day. We drove to
the end of the peninsular one day to visit the ancient city site of
Knidos. What views, with a double
harbour on the Aegean and Mediterranean sides!
The British Museum has a huge carved lion from here, amongst other
purloined artefacts.
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Mr. B’s Reading Year No. 1: Fire Season by Philip Connors (2011)
Hilary
gave me this great present last year – 11 books through the year selected by
Mr. B’s wonderful and award-winning bookshop in Bath - but I only started
getting the books towards the end of 2012.
First book up, Fire Season by
Philip Connors, is this fascinating description of times in the Gila National
Forest on the Texas-Mexico border as a fire-watcher. This is a no-road wilderness, something we
can only dream of in the UK. There are
lyrical passages of life alone in the high mountains with Alice, his faithful
dog, over the summers. The characters he
meets, the fire teams and some passing through on the long-distance hiking
trail, are interesting and varied. There
is romance, with his wife, Martha, how they met and increasing tension as to
how they can carry on living apart over the summers. The unanswered question is will he have to
return to the Wall Street Journal after ten years and do a “real” job again. Philip
Connors has a great feel for nature and ecology and brings to life the history
of US forest management and the policies of individual foresters that have
shaped that history. Local history and
characters colour the book. Alongside
Martha, Alice and himself is a fourth major character in this book – Fire. Fires are dangerous – tragically reconfirmed
very recently with the deaths of 19 men, an entire forest fire crew, in the US.
Hence the old policy that US forests would no longer burn and firewatchers were
installed across many national forests.
However, as Connors so well describes, fire is a natural force and
without it, the ecology of huge areas of the US have been damaged. Many forests are adapted to fire and require
it for tree succession. Slowly, natural
burns, which often start from lightning strikes, are being allowed, though
closely monitored by the fire watchers and fire crews, with the result that the
natural ecology is returning. There is spectacular scenery in the US, especially
the National Parks, a little of which Hilary and I saw on our 3000 mile road
trip from Texas, via New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, a little bit of Wyoming to
Denver, Colorado in 2007.
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