Geographers & Explorers, Stories of Discovery Volume 1

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Geography is the study of people, places and time.

It spans the making of Planet Earth and formation of all we see, as well as the landscape of the human world and the intricacies of the biosphere.

Geography is the burning passion in all of us to question, discover and understand. For those that are curious, it is the greatest of all academic subjects.

This book explores five amazing stories of geographical exploration and discovery:

1. The Exploration of the Lost World: we follow the efforts of adventurers to reach the summit of ‘lost world’ tepui mountains of the Guiana Highlands and discover the unique animals, carnivorous plants and extraordinary landscapes of the summits of these mountains.

2. Escape from the White Continent: we follow the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Transantarctic Expedition, his adventurous journey to South Georgia, and the latest discoveries from the Antarctic continent, from Antarctic fossils to glaciology, ice caves, volcanoes under the ice and newly discovered hydrothermal vents.

3. Navigating a Mutiny: in this chapter, we journey to the South Seas to explore the munity on the Bounty story, and the Pacific’s heritage of great Polynesian navigators their star compass techniques, voyaging canoes and the trio of great Western map makes: James Cook, William Bligh and Matthew Flinders.

4. Exploring the Amazon: we follow the extraordinary adventures of Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates through their travels in the Amazon. From the discoveries they made, to Wallace’s catastrophic shipwreck on his way home, and ongoing exploration in the Amazon Basin.

5. Gardens of the Sun: Continuing Wallace’s story, we follow his travels through the Malays Archipelago, and the ground breaking discoveries that he made: the Sarawak Law, the Wallace Line, and eventually, the Theory of Evolution. Each of these is discussed in the context of the time, along with subsequent adventures of Victorian plant hunters and the author’s own journey in search of new species of carnivorous plants.

In our changing world, a new generation of geographers is needed more than ever.

This book is written for borne with a passion for geography in its truest sense: the yearning to peer beyond distant horizons and discover new knowledge.