Into the Abyss - Tapa dura

As he fell into the abyss, he asked himself: Why do explorers put themselves in dangerous situations. And, once the worst possible situation occurs, how do explorers find the resources to survive? In answering these questions, Benedict Allen weaves a series of tales from his own experiences driving a dogsled across the ice bridge linking Siberia with North America, as well that of other explorers including Columbus, Cortez, Shakelton, Stanley, Livingstone - and their modern counterparts: Joe Simpson and Ranulf Fiennes.

Benedict Allen is one of the UK's most prominent explorers. Wherever possible, he prefers to travel alone, immersing himself in alien environments having first learnt survival skills from indigenous people. In 1983, aged 23, he crossed the remote rainforest between the Orinoco and Amazon, on foot and by dugout canoe: a journey that became the subject of his first book Mad White Giant: A Journey to the Heart of the Amazon Jungle. He followed this with his second book Into the Crocodile Nest. Subsequent expeditions have included a search for ape-men in Sumatra (Hunting the Gugu), a trek through New Guinea and to Australia's Gibson Desert (The Proving Grounds) and a 3600-mile journey across the Amazon Basin (Through Jaguar Eyes).