Resumo de Challenging The Unknown

This remarkable true story tells of the 600km journey Balchin made on the neck of a 37 years old she elephant. Travelling through the many wild and unexplored regions of Thailand, this epic and inspirational journey was made all the more remarkable by the Multiple sclerosis Balchin was suffering from each day.

From the first page to the end of the book, the story is captivating to the point that my copy of the book never closed, it was read over two nights while on holiday. The story reads more like a romantic novel and yet Balchin writes with such an easy prose that it becomes an accessible read for any age.

Challenging the Unknown is told using tenderness, romance, adventure, friendship and life threatening incident. One cannot help but be inspired by the vivid and often graphic descriptions Balchin shares with his audience and the insight into living with Multiple Sclerosis and facing the unknown. Humour can be found throughout and the relationship Maesanook (elephant) and Balchin develop over most of the journey is unique, informative and emotive. Balchin and his crew begin this audacious challenge in the far north of Thailand and from an early point Balchin brings his surroundings alive and off the page without falling into the time honoured mistake, that many travel writers make, of literary over-kill or drowning the paragraph?s in clichés.

Faced with countless challenges and numerous comic incidences, Balchin and his original elephant, Mae Bunta, see their planed route thrown off course. With an early accident forcing Mae Bunta to be replaced by the younger and less experienced Mae Sanook, Balchin finds solace in his love of jungle living and his developing friendship he builds with his female translator. Catastrophe continues to follow Balchin at every turn and he is finally challenged to the extreme when he loses his sight. Undeterred, Balchin recovers after a few days and they all continue south to the finishing point.

Balchin and his crew continue to face endless hurdles as they near the journey?s end. The book is written in a prose that is easy to follow yet descriptive and the suspense is continual and enthralling. Balchin is faced with mutiny and crisis, which inevitably forces him to re-evaluate his plans and his future goals.

Challenging the Unknown is by far one of the best books I have read this year and would fully recommend it to others.

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