Richard Grant's top 10 Books about Wandering

"I have a restless personality, a compulsion to keep travelling, and I've always enjoyed reading about people who made their lives into a perpetual journey. The literature of wandering and nomadism is also in part a literature of harsh, arid environments - deserts, steppes, tundra - where trees, agriculture and sedentary societies have found it difficult to take root."

1. Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca
The extraordinary, mesmerising and true adventure of a Spanish conquistador shipwrecked off the coast of Texas in 1527. Naked and barefoot, with three companions, he walked all the way to the Pacific coast of Mexico, accruing a procession of thousands of Indians who hailed him as a god and a healer. This is the first book ever written about the North American interior and still one of the best.

2. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
A travel book about Australian Aborigines in which very little actually happens apart from Chatwin's speculations on the human urge to wander. Aborigines won't talk to him, he invents his main character, the book's structure dissolves into a mosaic of notebook entries - and yet he writes so beautifully, and thinks such interesting thoughts, that none of these flaws matter.

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Read the rest of Richards picks...

                                          

Cabeza de Vaca - The Ultimate Trekker and Forager

"Cabeza de Vaca and his fellow trekkers survived their ordeals as POWs and became successful healers and traders and effective, albeit not necessarily efficient, hunters and gatherers. Over the course of almost seven years, they came to know vast tracts of North America, root by root, fruit by fruit, and animal by animal, terrestrial and aquatic alike. During their cultural metamorphoses, the survivors had ample opportunity to learn enough about the landscapes and cooking technologies in greater South Texas to eke out a living along their routes to freedom. They made their escape when they entered the South Texas heartland for the last time and fled south to would-be enemies who welcomed the soon-to-be trekkers. In doing so, they availed themselves to the powers of Old World healers whose fame was spreading fast across South Texas"

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/cabeza-cooking/deepsouth.html

Stalking the Good Life!

Ultimately, I would like to be able gather food along the way as I go on my walks across country. To be able to identify and gather edible plants has always been a deire that I've had. It's time to start studying up and practicing. Here are a few of the foraging sites that I've found for Texas edibles and  edible plants for other locations. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

• http://www.foragingtexas.com
• Historic Foods of the Texas Natives
• Eat The Weeds

I walk with my waterproof backpack with my camel back water pack strapped onto the backpack.

Some of the treasures I found on my walk to work today.

Walking to work - my time. My best yet. Maybe southbound on 75 is the way I need to start going in the morning.

 

It's 11:45AM, and my day is almost halfway over. I can not tell you how tired it I am right now. Getting up at 3AM stinks, but it is a different world that early in the morning. More than being tired, the upper part of my back is killing me from my back pack. I really have to find a way to lighten my bag some more. All in all, it was a good experience, and a great adventure. One of the main benefits, its that it did not take any time away from my family since they were asleep.

Walking to Work - walking south down Central Expwy