Epic Expeditions: 25 Great Explorations into the Unknown

by Ed Stafford

What does it take to survive in the unknown? Explorer and survival expert, Ed Stafford captures the spirit of adventure in 25 of the greatest expeditions of all time. From 1864-2018, intrepid explorers blazed a trail with round-the-world records, the ascent of Everest, crossing the Australian desert by camel and kayaking the North Atlantic Ocean. They conquered mountains, deserts, jungles and seas venturing into the most remote and inhospitable climes on the planet. Peeking inside each kit bag (including his own), Ed Stafford reveals how the great explorers achieved their awe-inspiring missions to find out more about our world, and how the equipment they carried with them determined the success or failure of their expedition. Ed Stafford is a British explorer and the face of survival on the Discovery Channel. He holds the Guinness World Record for being the first person ever to walk the length of the Amazon River. 'Walking from the Pacific, over the Andes and along the entire length of the Amazon to the Atlantic is truly extraordinary ... To do all this in more than 800 continuous days with just a backpack puts Stafford's endeavour in the top league of expeditions past and present.'
Sir Ranulph Fiennes EPIC EXPEDITIONS was first published as an illustrated, large format hardback under the title EXPEDITIONS What the Great Explorers Took into the Unknown. This new paperback edition includes a black and white photograph of each explorer and a black and white illustration of their kit.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

262 pages, Paperback

Published July 6, 2021

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book to dive in and out of. Provides short descriptions of some of the world's best adventures. Not an extraordinary book, but a solid introduction offering readers a surface level look at stories.

[J Wratten · Rating 5 out of 5]

informative, easy to read book. If someone bought you this book as a gift they would be really cool 😎

[Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book that had me so engrossed from the very start. The book goes through 25 very amazing journeys across unknown or uncharted territories.
It starts with a list of items that each person took with them. Then explains what happens on their journeys. It flowed fantastically. The author wrote with a very fascinating , insightful ,and easy to flow style. I could of read this book forever it just kept my interest throughout. This book is a brilliant page turner that I just couldn't put down. I had to finish it in one sitting which ment I had one very late night. I just wanted to know how these fascinating expeditions would end as there was some edge of your seat or shocking endings. My favourite was a woman who wanted to travel the world in 80 days but wasn't taken serious. I won't give more than that away but it was brilliant. The book included a short insight into the author own travels along the Amazon River from source to mouth. There was certainly some very scary moments.
Only the highest of praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this absolutely wonderful book of human endurance. I will definitely be looking out for more books by this fantastic author.

[Katya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that started off strongly, and carried on as strong, felt like it got a little bit more boring for the fact that the the expeditions progressed with time (as in, were done in more recent years). The writing style went from explaining the reasoning behind the expedition and how it was done to being more of a flex about the more and more equipment used by the explorers.

[Alastair Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

In theory this is a great idea, but unfortunately I think it's just not well executed.

There are a few passages which don't scan properly, and others which have contradictory statements; Clärenore departs Frankfurt heading to China via Moscow yet for some reason drives through Baghdad, Amelia Earhart is mentioned to save money for a few years from December 2020 which takes her to the middle of 2021, someone sails solo around the world in May 1968 and in response the Golden Globe Competition is announced in March 1968…...

Then there's the kit list pages, which don't have any detail and therefore are relatively useless pictures of generic kit.

The actual expedition descriptions are in some cases very interesting, but others merely become quite dreary logs of the expedition with no insight or recounting of events other than the times and places.

Finally, I struggle with the quite egotistical move by the author to put both his own and his wife's expeditions in a list of the top 25 expeditions, to then realise that they married while she was 23 and he was in his 40s which made reading the final chapter quite uncomfortable to be honest.

Overall I think having more detailed kit lists, with further suggested reading for the expeditions and reducing the number from 25 to 10 and therefore dedicating more time to them along with maps then this could have been a really interesting book, but it just feels slightly too untidy.

[Lowarn Gutierrez · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable light read for someone with a cursory interest in the topic. Although the kit talk was less interesting to me (and went over my head a bit at times), the "kit bag" gimmick worked alright!

I wouldn't consider it the best-written book in the world, but it does its job just fine, summarising each expedition decently given that the chapters are fairly short. I found the earlier expeditions more interesting, personally, and was delighted that Nellie Bly's trip around the world was included - one of my closest friends did her dissertation on her travelling outfit when we did our Bachelor's in Costume!

[Miriam James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read for finding out a little about a load of expeditions. It provided good descriptions, great for if you want to know about a broad range but aren’t sure about reading in immense detail about all of them. I liked that the expeditions Ed Stafford chose to write about were fairly varied and interesting. He also did a great job of showing how gruelling and tense these expeditions could be, keeping you gripped in each chapter.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look at 25 amazing expeditions charting the lengths people will go to in order to push the boundaries of human endurance. Each expedition is briefly described alongside a photo of the adventurer plus a list of the equipment that was used followed by a more in depth description usually covering about 2 to 4 pages. An improvement could have included maps of some of the expeditions, which would have made the descriptions easier to follow.

[Lisa Marie Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A good intro into some cool expeditions but sometimes boring. The author cared more about the gear than anything else (fair enough) but that does little for me. That was especially noticeable in the chapter about Apa Sherpa. Still a pretty good read that I might reference back to in the future.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book that lets you explore epic adventures. The author introduces you on some of interesting 25 great expeditions around the world, offering readers a surface level look of storytelling.

I enjoyed reading this book.

[Roo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love love LOVE this book. My only complaint is it is too short!!!

[Joshua Friesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

These 25 short narratives are good for those who are looking for a skin deep understanding of the story. But I prefer a longer detailed version of each story.