Running with the moon by Jonny Bealby

When it comes to travelogues, I find it hard to find one that hasn't overdone it on the description, and when you don't know the place very well, too much description loses me. To have just the right amount of description to keep the reader's attention and engage them in your adventure is a very tricky art. What Jonny does so brilliantly in this story is mix a perfect blend of emotion, beautiful honesty, energy, courage, adventure and dare I say, spirituality into the narrative. For me, he strikes a chord and there are moments in the book where I applaud the prose and only hope I can be as good some day. I mean, the whole thing is edited to perfection, but those particular sections are extra extra special. Page 209 is a great example of this when Jonny finally reaches Cape Town.

This is the first travelogue I've read cover to cover and boy what an adventure. Makes me wish I had the guts to jump on a motorbike and ride down one side of Africa and back up the other. I love Africa, it's in my blood having contracted adventure tours there for a good eight years. This book was recommended to me by a friend who now works for Jonny over at Wild Frontiers. From the way he was describing it to me, I knew I was going to enjoy it. We all face crossroads in life and it's how we deal with the fallout of change that shapes our future. This is at the heart of Running with the moon. What also resonated with me from a travel perspective was the bits of Africa he travelled through which I didn't know very well, I came to know better, and the bits I did know, it brought back wonderful memories. The description of Lake Tana hotel in Tana, Ethiopia on pages 294 and 295 - I stayed there in December 2007 and it's still exactly the same!

If you love Africa and you love an adventure coupled with beautiful prose, this is definitely a must read. I am sure I'll be reading it over and over.  

---