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| Nagaland. CREDIT The Raven Brothers © |
Here's our pick of 3 incredible off the beaten track adventures for 2021, featured in the epic new travel book 'Hike, Drive, Stayin' Alive!' by The Raven Brothers, Chris and Simon Raven.
There are few frontiers left to explore on planet Earth. With permits being relaxed in the less visited northeast Indian state of Nagaland, the Raven Brothers were on a train and two buses from Kolkata faster than a bullet from a gun.
Chris: We’d planned to travel to Darjeeling and parts of Assam, but Nagaland was well off our radar. It took three days to reach the foot of the Naga hills, a sign greeted us at the border that a ceasefire was in place in the region.
Simon: The roads through the thick jungle were heavily potholed. Our backsides left the seat countless times during our journey to Mon, which is the only settlement of any size in the less visited north. For centuries Nagaland has been ruled by hill tribes. We saw tattooed tribal elders on route to the Myanmar border wearing headdresses of exotic hornbill feathers, and carrying machetes that until very recently were used to remove the heads of their enemies.
Fourteen-thousand feet in the high Andes, lies the legendary Potosi silver mine. During a South America adventure of a lifetime, the Raven Brothers explore the cavernous depths of Cerro Rico and meet the stoic Andean people who live at the rooftop of the world.
Simon: There are few places in the world that leave such a huge impression on you. The lives of the miners are fraught with danger, yet they are some of the most humble people you are ever likely to meet.
Chris: The mountain is steadily collapsing from overmining. We didn’t know that until we had crawled deep into the guts of Cerro Rico, a silver mine that for centuries has been known as "the mountain that eats men".
3. A Boat, a Goat & Three Chickens
During the mighty Magh Mela festival, the Raven Brothers and a friend buy a rowing boat and embark on a Ganges voyage to Varanasi. Blind river dolphins, bandits and a corpse greet them during a journey that rapidly spirals out of control.
Chris: The idea to buy a boat and row the Ganges was a moment of madness. We were out of our depth and unprepared. We lived a lifetime in one single day.
Simon: We experienced good and bad karma on both sides of one of the most holy rivers in the world. For weeks afterwards we had blisters on our hands where the oars had rubbed away the skin. To haul the boat waist deep in the heavily polluted water is a memory that often flashes through my mind. The Indian people are incredibly strong and must fight for survival on the shores of this incredible river.
'Hike, Drive, Stayin' Alive!' by the Raven Brothers is out now! Order your copy from Amazon or your favourite book retailer worldwide.
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by The Raven Brothers
Out of shape and unprepared, The Raven Brothers return to the road in a collection of ten quests to travel to their dream destinations against all odds! After two decades pioneering new routes across the globe, you would expect the authors of 'Driving the Trans-Siberian' to be hotshot explorers, with a sixth sense and an ability to survive in almost any situation. Think again! With virtually zero knowledge of the workings of the internal combustion engine and very limited skills of wilderness survival, Simon and Chris struggle into their hiking boots and power across three continents by river, tarmac and trail.
Venture to the top of Norway, cruise the road to Damascus, hike the Camino trail into Spain’s Wild West, row the Ganges, explore Frida Kahlo’s world in Mexico City, hangout with the dead in Sicily’s eerie catacombs, crawl deep inside Bolivia’s notorious silver mine, seek lions in Gujarat, wellness in Berlin and journey into the Naga Hills where tribal kings still rule.
Noted by Lonely Planet for their talent to portray an “accurate view of what to expect”, 'Hike, Drive, Stayin’ Alive!' signals a return to the duo writing “buttock clenching” travel comedy with the first in a series of candid stories of adventure by The Raven Brothers.