Dimensions
229 x 152 x 25mm
Acclaimed writer Paul Watkins describes his spellbinding solo trek through the mountains of Norway - a grand but harsh landscape where myth and reality meet.
When Paul Watkins was 19 years old, he was the victim of a terrible accident while working on a scallop trawler deep at sea: A steel dredge swung into his face, shearing a hole in his jaw. For nearly a week, Watkins endured the agonizing wait for the boat to return to shore. A fellow crewmate, a Norwegian, helped Watkins pass the time, telling him stories of the stunningly beautiful, mountainous, snow-capped land of his birth. Through his pain, Watkins imagined what such a place would be like and vowed he would go and experience it for himself. He has, every year since.
'The Fellowship Of Ghosts' describes Watkins's recent solo adventure on foot through the wilds of Norway's Rondane and Jutunheimen mountains. In this engaging and reflective volume, Watkins treks through some of the most beautiful country imaginable - valleys bordered by thousand-foot cliffs, roaring waterfalls wreathed in rainbows, blinding glaciers, and shimmering blue snowfields. Yet it is also some of the harshest terrain in the world - a challenge even to the most avid climber. Watkins's route follows razor-thin ridges, hair-raising paths, and vertigo-inducing drops. He experiences overwhelming solitude; for much of the trip his only companions are the early explorers described in the books he carries, and the mythical "presences" said to exist in the hills.
'The Fellowship Of Ghosts' captures the profound connection between the Norwegian landscape and the myths, peoples, and dreams that it inspires.
