Back Cover: " The weather has picked up on itself. It has become compact. The seventeen months of Latitude 0 were gradually transformed in my memory, a sort of unique moment, a breathtaking intensity, during which I lived almost simultaneously all he can live. I have seen children born and men die. I walked along the rivers and climbed mountains. I have known peace and I lived through the war. I laughed and I cried all the tears in my body. I felt joy, disappointment, sadness, fear of dying, euphoria and despair. "Mike Horn
lives only to realize his dreams. Then one spring day, he left on a shore with his wife and two daughters he adores, to circumnavigate the world alone, following the equator. On foot, by canoe, sailing and cycling through three oceans and two continents, Mike Horn has walked on the invisible thread. Never deviate more than forty miles. Here he tells how one man managed to blend in with nature for her to let go - and sometimes he can not. In the rainforest of Brazil, bitten by a snake, he stayed four days blind, half-conscious, not knowing whether or not the poison was deadly. But the greatest danger is the man and his wars. In Africa, rebels stopped Mike Horn and sentenced him to death. It escaped only narrowly. Why all this? Because he wanted to go after his dream later in the meeting of nature and men.
We discover in this story an extraordinary man who is afraid, who marvels that hurts, but ahead, always.
Notice JB:
- JB you do not know Mike Horn?
- No, who?
- This is a guy who descended the Amazon in hydro ...
Amazonia hydrospeed ... It was obviously enough to make me take a detour to the radius' stories of adventurers "of a Parisian department store. A quick glance is enough to realize that not only Mie Horn down the Amazon, but it also has to his credit, a whole bunch of other completions inhuman feats.
Former lieutenant in the South African special forces, he left South Africa for Switzerland in 1990, where he opened a water sports center, met his future wife and begin planning its future "adventures" .
He is the author of numerous books about his exploits (such as around the globe through the Arctic Circle ...) and more recently "Objective, North Pole at night," XO Publishing (2007), Pocket (2008).
"Latitude Zero" is the name of the small trimaran in which Mike Horn will start in Gabon to begin a world tour around the equator (the maximum deviation allowed is an invisible border 40km south and north of it). I'll let you run your finger around a globe, you will see that this type of project allows you to vary the pleasures.
Around the adventurer, a small logistics team of faithful, some sponsors and family. In addition to not having to deviate from the path of the equator, it has set Prohibition as to use any type of motorized transport, resulting in some surreal situations where forced to do part of his journey by Jeep (in Africa, and by force) he always manages to turn back again the distance on foot or cycling.
I'm not going to detail step by step the various feats he has succeeded, I leave you to read this book. One example, speaking tell us: 3600 km in total autonomy over the Amazon forest, 6 months, on foot ...
While Mike Horn is extremely well prepared, although his past military must help, of course he had several times insolent a chance to get out of impossible situations, the fact remains that what he has accomplished is a feat almost inhuman in that he probably had a mind scarcely imaginable .
The book is constructed like a travelogue, a diary, or it exposes us as well as his feelings very concrete data on the progress of his journey (chapters represent different parts of the journey). We're so caught up in the grand adventure that comes almost to pass moments of reunion with his family back into the jungle, climb a peak of over 5000m, surfing the Pacific or sow deserters in the Congolese jungle, selfish player I guess.
In search of adventure "pure" are first indignant few references to the sponsors or the discontent of the adventurer, when the recognition of one of the stages of his journey is low. Similarly, we may not agree with his thoughts when he crosses the continent. How to achieve such an adventure without sponsors? If this were the case, we would not smile alongside "millionaire adventurer? When making such a trip and even if we can not do without before doing anything to itself, is not it natural to expect some influence media? Mike Horn said himself, one of its motivations is to achieve "that nobody had ever done, to be first," we can try him for that?
To read or not?
Yes to any avid adventure story. The literary interest of the book is rather weak, let's be honest what should be paramount in your decision to buy this book is "is what I want to read 300 pages of sea / mountain / jungle recounting a year and a half of adventure. " Unless the emotional tension or style, is a feat that you read, not a great book.
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