Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down
A book. by Pedlar. a travel book (of sorts).
Eight travel essays. occasional notes. after the party is over.
You can download a free eBook here:
Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down on lulu.com.
Pedal
Pedal is a book. by Pedlar. with pages. and words. and you can read it. or not.
It was written in the early 1990s, following a long cycle journey.
You can order a paperback copy here:
Pedal on lulu.com.
Pedal had a working title of An Accidental Englishman Abroad
Overview
The book is divided into three main sections: Eastern Europe, Turkey, and Pakistan & India, and also a final "summing up" chapter
("England"), separated by three so-called "interludes" - the basis of each being the three major cities he passed through:
Istanbul, Cairo and Delhi. As he says himself in his introduction:
The interludes - of the three major cities - are specifically not guided tours. They are excuses for a pause; interim summaries;
soap-boxes, indeed. But each city has a flavour and that is what should be preserved.
This introduction, included on the chapter-title page, is as good a summing-up of what one is about to read as anything. However...
The opening two chapters, Austria and Czechoslovakia, are particularly short. The journey began with an overfly to Vienna, Austria,
from where he followed the Danube east. As throughout the book, their mood reflects his own: excited, a little nervous perhaps, anticipatory...
He passes through Hungary, Yugoslavia (as was) and Bulgaria, finding his cycling legs, his rhythm, and learning how to see and interact with the
world from a bicycle seat. By the time he reaches Turkey and the first of his little breaks in Istanbul, he is already feeling more assured:
he has travelled half-way across eastern Europe and survived. Now he can stop worrying too much about that, and begin to look out and around
himself a bit more...
Turkey is a big country, and the first half of the middle section of the book is devoted to his travels across this land. Interesting as his
reflections and observations are, by the time he reaches the Syrian border you too, along with him, feel a sense of relief, though like most
endurance tests, as soon as they are over you can suddenly feel that it wasn't so tough, after all - yes, I could do that again, ha!
Syria and Jordan are something of a revelation. Now he is at last really out of familiar territory, out of Europe and into a completely new
culture. The ambiguities and contradictions of the Arab culture are a perfect foil against which we can see our own. The depth of history in
these lands provides a new perspective not only on our own history, but on our view of theirs too. All the while, of course, we follow every
turn of the pedals as he cycles south, and his descriptions of travelling along the Kings Highway on the north-eastern rim of the Great Rift Valley
in Jordan are quite memorable….
Cairo is his second "interlude", after which he overflies to Karachi, Pakistan. By now he is practically the seasoned traveller, and is more
prepared for the culture-shift. But now, of course, he has a third perspective, a third way with which to compare and contrast how we strange
humans look at our world. There are passages in these last chapters where he really lets rip with his opinions, though he never forgets where
or who he is: just an accidental Englishman abroad.
These final chapters are a mix of some wonderful travel writing alongside some deeply felt philosophical meanderings. By the time you have read
them, whether you agree with his philosophy or not, you will have travelled these roads with him, in a big loop around north and west Pakistan,
across the border into India and over to Srinagar, then up the long, long fabulous road from there to Leh across the "Mountains of the Moon" in Ladakh.
He closes with a final "interlude" in Delhi, and then a chapter called "England". As he says in the introduction,
"the whole book is in fact a prelude leading to this chapter."
But you have to read the whole book first...
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