The Adventurer's Handbook, Life Lessons from History's Great Explorers

by Mick Conefrey

The Adventurer's Handbook is a light–hearted romp through the history of exploration, using the style of a how–to manual with tips, techniques and instructions on all kinds of adventures and expeditions. This book is packed full of useful information – such as what to do if you are attacked by an anaconda (you wait until it has swallowed you up to your knees and then you reach up and cut its head off •), how to always have a fresher pair of underpants, how to deal with a charging lion, and how to find water in the desert. At its heart are the tales of derring–do, survival, and endurance such as Wilfred Thesiger's crossing of the Empty Quarter, an enormous, little–explored stretch of desert in Southern Arabia, the Kon–Tiki expedition, the search for the source of the Nile, Freya Stark's travels with the Bedouin in the 1940s, or Shackleton's antarctic expedition. Tales of mutiny, solitude, leadership, crisis management, and the spirit of competition make this a fascinating and entertaining read.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Adventure, History, Reference, Survival, Self Help

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2005

About the author

Mick Conefrey is the author of the award-winning Adventurer’s Handbook and How to Climb Mont Blanc in a Skirt. An internationally recognised filmmaker, he has produced several BBC documentaries on mountaineering and exploration, including The Race for Everest. He lives in north Oxford with his family.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The raw material of this book is a fascinating (if occasionally grisly) collection of exploration stories, mostly centered around the 19th and 20th centuries. Everest, the North and South pole, and expeditions across Africa and Australia are covered, among others. The book had a good level of detail. My only real complaint is that the author tried to organize the book around "lessons" that can be learned. This meant that the stories tended to be broken up. For example, chapter one is called "Getting Started" and is about organizing a team, getting equipment, and fundraising. It relates a bunch of snippets about the beginning preparation of a bunch of different trips. I found this approach made it difficult to keep the trips/people straight and made the stories lose their narrative drive. Also, some of the "lessons" that Conefrey tried to draw felt artificial to me. There were some stories that were separated out and told start to finish in a straightforward way and those were the best parts of the book. Overall, very interesting content but I wish it had been presented differently.

[Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly interesting and entertaining read. I actually bought it at a used book store on a whim and ended up reading it because I had run out of mysteries and was having an oh-my-God-I don't-have-a-book-to-read moment.

It's a slim volume and an easy read. I've always been rather fascinated with explorers and expeditions, especially mountain climbing and polar adventures, so this had plenty of interest. I was introduced to a lot of explorers I'd never heard of before, which was fun. And I've already purchased one of the volumes in the bibliography and plan to buy more. It's a great jumping off point for learning more about interesting explorers. Since I finished the book I've rewatched the PBS production of Hillary (Excellent) and a couple of terrific Everest docs I found on YouTube. A very nice break from mysteries (Ah, but I have a Peter May trilogy waiting for me at the library...sweet!).

[Carolyn Whitzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an idiosyncratic little book. Unsurprisingly, most of the people profiled are white European men, and most of the mountains, seas, deserts, and Poles being explored are not in Europe. The colonial nature of deciding that places that have seen people are unexplored because no white man has written about it could use more exploration, so to speak. But the analysis of why some expeditions fail and others succeed is analysed with brevity, wit, and some psychological insight. It is a bricolage book: with packing lists, top tens, and short biographies fitting into themes like Getting Started and Getting Back. I read it as a palate cleanser between some other books. It was fun.

[Constantino Casasbuenas · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page”. St Augustine

Either Pablo, Bethany or Juan David left this book in our home in Chía towards the end of 2017. After having a general overview, I thought that it was interesting to read it. I loved the way how in its first part the author tells stories about what were considered to be important adventures and then makes an analysis about common features of any adventure. It was excellent to see the descriptions of adventures on climbing the highest mountains in any continent or in the world (Everest), navigating to unknown places like the north or the South Pole, crossing Australia from the South to North, finding the origin of the Nile river, or following the route from Peru/Bolivia to the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia. In these descriptions, the book links the reader with some of the main documents available.

It was great to read the analysis of different competitions, which were valid during the 19 and 20th century, and how they succeeded or failed, depending on leadership, best equipments, plans, knowing (imagining) how to go there and how to come back and a thorough analysis on how to fight and overcome major risks (foreseen and unforeseen) that may happen because of weather, being lost, availability of food and water, animals that you can eat, while others could eat you, mosquitoes, languages, understanding local people, your own ego and the ego of other people, etc.

There was a strange feeling that in the book’s context, the Europeans or the Americans are the ones who “discover” the special points. It is a kind of history understood and written in a post-colonial context, with the riches people discovering key points in the world. It happens at the moment when there is no internet, no mobile phones or any of the modern tools available today. The case of Everest is interesting because it shows well the moment in which ascending the mountain becomes a good market for clients who can pay to get to the top. Be them old or new adventurers, it was impressive to read about the conditions that took some explorers to death.

When I go through my own experience, I can identify three “adventures” in which I might pass away.
- As a mechanical engineer, I was coming back from Araracuara (Colombian jungle in Caquetá-Amazons) to Villavicencio by plane and the pilot got lost in Northern Perú (1981)
- As social workers, we were helping survivors from the Armero disaster (November 13, 1985). We became part of a list of people who would be detained and possibly disappeared in Colombia because our jobs were observed by the army to have a subversive or revolutionary role.
- Representing an international organization I was visiting a group of teachers in El Salvador. They lived near San Salvador and they were working to support the FMLN’s development. Suddenly AF helicopters came and attacked the school where we had the meeting (1990).

There would be many elements to describe these three stories properly, but I will not do it in this text. What I found interesting was to reflect on them and see some of Conefrey’s elements of the three adventures: my role, the teams, plans, knowledge about the context, equipment, cooperation between teams, unforeseen events, the final outcome, internal and external publicity, how to share your own story... To an important degree, I was lucky because “Victory awaits him who has everything in order – luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time – this is called bad luck”, wrote Roald Amundsen.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable stories from the golden age of exploration including the 1996 Everest tragedy. The book goes through the planing stages of expeditions with anecdotes from famous expeditions of yesteryear, when explorers had nothing but guts and determination or good social standing and plenty of money. The book covers both the successful and unsuccessful expeditions analysing the leaders, equipment and team dynamics that contributed to each journey. Very entertaining for the armchair adventurer and real life wanderer.

[Endangered · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a nice collection of both great success stories and failures in expedition history. It's a great combination of historically significant expeditions, internal challenges, and as the cover states "Life Lessons from History's Great Explorers". The author does an outstanding job of explaining how or why these great explorers ended up in each situation along with reasoning for their final outcome.

Cross an ocean, summit a mountain, or push deep into the arctic. If you like history and stories of more primitive exploration, this will prove to be entertaining.

[Jo Berry ☀️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book full of snippets of information about explorers and exploring, covering trips into jungles, deserts, mountains and to the two poles. I flicked through it for a while and read parts, but nothing really grabbed my attention - I think because it’s all a bit brief and soon moves onto the next thing. Perhaps the style of this book just wasn’t my cup of tea, but I just didn’t get anything out of it. You could find better information online. (Note: There is an index if you’re looking for a mention of anything specific).

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of adventure stories that makes for a light read.

[Jessica Jeffries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Has some clever insights. It's well written and occasionally offers a good bit of humor!

[Alex Bbb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched overview of famous explorers. Lacked a consistent writing style

[Oceana2602 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was everything it promised to be, and more, because it contained a lot more historical information than I was prepared for - and that made me like it even better.

The authro focuses maybe a little bit too much on team-spirit and leadership, after all, that seems to be one thing you cannot learn by reading about it. But I guess it also makes for the more interesting stories, so he's forgiven.

Altogether, great fun! Everything you ever needed to know in order to survive your latest expedition, underlined with interesting and thoughtprovoking anekdotes from "history's great explorers". Except if you want to go to the jungle, because - as the authors admits himself - this book is more about the cold regions - poles and mountains and such. If you want to survive in the jungle, you gotta take MacGyver.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. I expected it to be very objective and uninvolved. Instead, Conefrey provided interesting, narrative examples from various expeditions. He talked about the value of teamwork, good leadership, planning, knowing the native animals and peoples, quality equipment, transportation, etc. In each instance, he provided an example from an expedition to showcase his point.

While he drew from expeditions of Australia, north African desert, Canadian wilderness, and Pacific islands among others, he focused primarily on Mountaineering and (Ant)Arctic expeditions. The reason cited was that these were the best documented of the expeditions to choose from.

If you like stories about history, exploration, expeditions, and explorations, this would be a very entertaining read.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Adventurer's Handbook was an unexpected delightful read. If you are like me, an armchair mountaineer, then you will love this book too. I know I will never scale Everest, or K2 or even something more local and manageable, but I sure do like to read about people who do these amazing feats of athleticism. The Adventurer's Handbook is more of a history of "gentleman expeditions" how they were organized, funded, equipped, and carried through. The book is divided in five main sections: Getting Started, Getting Going, Getting Along, Getting There, Getting Back. Mr. Confrey has a wealth of information to share and he does it with with humor, pragmatism, and uncomplicated explanations.

[Ken Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seemed more of a novelty than informative. I enjoyed some of the anecdotes, and appreciated the various obscure details about exploration, but too much of this book felt too abbreviated and thus, sketchy. And though as an avid reader of the explorers/climbers genre, I still learned a few things about events I’d already read extensively about, I was occasionally distracted by details that just felt inaccurate due to the brevity of the stories told. But that said, kudos to Conefrey for writing such a unique book with such a varied collection of tales.

[Summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

First-person accounts and diary excerpts, harrowing expeditions, nothing but the facts. When people see me reading this, they think it's one of those "Worst Case Scenario" or "Zombie Survival Guide" books. But it's not. It's a well-researched run-down on successful and tragically unsuccessful trips into unexplored lands over the past couple hundred years. So don't let the bargain-book cover fool you!

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting cross between a how-to guide and history text. It gave advice using practical examples from history as well as little excerpts from advice books of the period. The book spends far more time on explorations of extremely clod areas and on mountain climbing that I was expecting when I picked it up, but the author admits as much in the first chapter, and the book was still an interesting read.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid read that encompassed a great many 'classic' journeys of the golden age of exploration - from the late 18th century until the middle of the 20th (with the tale of the 1996 Everest disaster thrown in as a case study).

As expected, a number of the cases are very abridged and reading some of the source material might be preferable; regardless, it was an enjoyable, whirlwind tour through time and around the world to some of the most inhospitable locales on the planet.

[Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of mostly English 19th- and 20th-century explorers, focusing on how you assemble a team, raise money, lead the team and make the often fatal decision to press on or turn back. A quick read and an enticing introduction to some books and explorers I had not known of, including Englishman Eric Shipton.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious mix of advice for explorers and tales of historical figures. Somehow, it works - I didn't pick it up looking for super-technical advice, and Conefrey has plenty of exciting stories to tell about successful and unsuccessful expeditions. Would be nicely accompanied with a few historical accounts of the expeditions mentioned in the book. Review at www.noracoon.com

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impulse buy today and I can't put it down.

[Alan Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Excellent book, the stories of Great Explorers of the 19th & 20th century.The book taught me a lot and inspired me in times of defeat when ever I was on an expedition .Over all good book to read

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice roundup of classic explorers. A bit repetitive though.

[Nick Woodall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lot's of interesting and esoteric stuff in this book.

[Jared Gallant]

A more interesting read than I expected as I received the book as a gift. The stories are presented in a straight forward and factual manner but with a humorous twist.

[Danae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really easy & fun read. I loved it for lunch breaks at work, and used it as a jumping board for other books I wanted to read in the genre (Kon Tiki was one of them...so good!)

[Leslie Davison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for dipping into.

[yengyeng · Rating 4 out of 5]

How not to deal with an anaconda attack.

[Ahmad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of intresting anecdotes, information and exploration advice. A good book.