Lost worlds

In Lost Worlds David Yeadon continues his exploration of the far corners of the world that he began in The Back of Beyond, described by Kirkus Reviews as a "big, vigorous, hugely entertaining book of travels off-the-beaten-path by a veteran travel writer." But this time his destinations are even more exotic and mysterious, taking readers to nine "lost worlds " - places so unique in topography, culture, and mood that many will be amazed that such regions still exist on our planet. Originally inspired by his 1988 adventures in the Gran Sabana of Venezuela, the location for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Lost World, Yeadon begins his odyssey this time in Zaire, searching for the Mountains of the Moon. Then in Central and South America he hacks his way through the jungle of Panama's Darien Gap to study the "Golden Time" ways of the Cuna tribespeople; moves across the vast, flat infinities of Venezuela's Los Llanos, living with the Llancro cowboys and learning their lore; travels on a mule to the great Andean ranges of Merida seeking a wise and elusive hermit; and narrowly avoids disaster in a small two-man yacht, sailing among the towering and virtually unknown fjords, glaciers, and islands of the southern Chilean coast. Sometimes guided by natives and sometimes traveling solo with only a backpack, a sketch pad, his own "transcendent eye and steady spirit" (Publishers Weekly), and his distinct sense of humor, Yeadon is able to capture the unique sense-of-place quality of local life, the extraordinary scenery, the peculiarities of regional cuisine, and the essence of his own inner journeys of self-discovery. He describes in alarming detail his "near-death" experience among the coral reefs of Western Australia's undiscovered shores, wanders through one of the world's strangest landscapes in Australia's Bungle Bungle outback, takes a long, lonely hike along Tasmania's southern shore, and ends up in a timeless paradise on one of the idyllic islands of Fiji.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.