Jim Eagles: Get all intrepid from your chair

The age of adventure is not entirely dead after all. It may be too late to be the first person to reach the South Pole or discover the source of the River Nile. But, as several of these books demonstrate, it's still possible to journey to places which are far from the beaten track, wild, mysterious and even dangerous.

These are stories of intrepid adventurers who have variously ridden alone across the mountainous wastes of Mongolia, kayaked down a ferocious Tibetan river, journeyed to the frozen frontiers of Alaska or dropped out into some of the most fascinating little backwaters of the globe.

It may not be to everyone's taste.

But it's nice to enjoy such adventures vicariously from the comfort of your armchair.

And it's even nicer to know that you can still find adventure out there if you try.

Gantsara: Alone across Mongolia
By Ian D Robinson
HarperCollins, $24.99

Wow. Now this is an adventure. New Zealander Ian Robinson's youthful dream was to ride on horseback alone across the wild, mountainous spaces of Mongolia, home of Genghis Khan and his all-conquering Mongol horde.

Well, it's the sort of dream you have when you're young, footloose and adventurous. The difference is that in 1992 Ian flew to Mongolia's capital Ulaan Baatar to live out his dream.

True, he could ride, he was a fairly experienced traveller and he did have a rough map of his intended route. But he spoke not a word of Mongolian, had no idea how he was going to buy horses or find his way around, and the country had been opened to foreigners for only a few months and was still in a state of post-Soviet chaos.

With the sort of luck that comes to fools and drunkards, Robinson was befriended by a local family who - while warning that his plan was crazy - found him his first horse and pointed him on the way. Four months, 2700km and 14 horses later he arrived back in Ulaan Baatar, exhausted, lice-ridden, unwashed, hungry ... and triumphant.

Along the way he lived with nomads and shared their food, escaped from drunken bandits, learned to trade horses like an expert, rode though magnificent mountain scenery rarely visited even by Mongols, circumvented officious bureaucrats and made some lifelong friendships.

This is not a book which pretends to offer deep psychological or cultural insights. It is a simple, straightforward, unpretentious account of an extraordinary journey, and is probably the more effective because of that.

It's not a feat many will feel inclined to emulate - in fact you probably can't because 12 years on Mongolia has been discovered by tourists - but it does show that the tradition of seeking adventure in wild places is not yet dead.

The Bone Man of Benares
By Terry Tarnoff
Allen and Unwin, $29.99

Flash back to the 70s. Terry Tarnoff drops out of Berkeley University, takes his 16 harmonicas and flees the United States, looking for kinder lands where he really can make love not war, suck in drugs rather than car exhaust fumes and commune with real people rather than the damaged products of civilisation.

For eight years he floats round Scandinavia, the Greek islands, Africa and Asia doing all those things plus meeting some fascinating people and visiting some extraordinary places.

Along the way he falls in love - yes, really in love - in the snows of Scandinavia, lives in a cave on Mykonos, sets up a band on a tiny island off the coast of Africa, smokes a joint with lepers in India, helps to open a new temple in Nepal, gets hooked on heroin in Thailand and shakes it in Laos, and meets his doppelganger in Benares.

Goodness knows where he gets the money - I guess it would be too crass to mention - but whenever things get too tense in one place there's always enough to fly on to somewhere new.

It's a rip-roaring reminder of the age of flower power when anything seemed possible; a trip down memory lane for some, envy lane for others and maybe inspiration street for a few.

Could you do a trip like that now? Why not?

Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet's Tsangpo River
By Peter Heller
Allen & Unwin, $35

It's almost as though one of the great explorers of the past - Columbus, Cook, Livingstone, Balboa or Scott - had taken a reporter with them to record the unvarnished reality of the expedition.

In place of the usual bowdlerised official version of any great piece of exploration this account has the ugly human frailties as well as the feats of amazing endeavour, the absurd cock-ups as well as the brilliant logistics, the vicious brutality as well as the stunning natural beauty.

The presence of journalist - and world-class kayaker - Peter Heller was part of the deal when Outside magazine agreed to sponsor an attempt on the Everest of kayaking, the Tsangpo River, which covers vast quantities of melted Himalayan snow, through deep, narrow gorges to the Brahmaputra River in India.

That may not have pleased some of the kayakers but it has made for a marvellously honest, warts-and-all saga of one of the great modern adventures.

All previous attempts to kayak down the Tsangpo had ended in disaster - the previous expedition in 1998 had barely started when one of the leaders drowned - which is hardly surprising when you consider that of the major rivers in the world it is at the highest altitude, has the deepest canyon, one of the steepest gradients and is probably the least accessible.

As well as arguably the most ferocious rapids in the world, the expedition had to surmount Chinese bureaucracy, corrupt travel operators, greedy porters, mountain tigers, high altitude and freezing conditions ... not to mention their own flawed personalities, including a substantial quantity of good old egotism.

Despite all that the team - which had a strong New Zealand component including Mike Abbott as one of the paddlers and Dave Allardice as leader of the ground team - achieved its goals.

It's a stirring story about incredibly bold deeds performed by fearless explorers who are also real people with all the strengths and weaknesses real people have.

Four Quarters of Light: An Alaskan Journey
By Brian Keenan
Doubleday, $37.95

When he was a boy Brian Keenan read Jack London's epic story, The Call of the Wild, and developed a lifetime wish to go to Alaska and rediscover the last frontier.

By the time the opportunity arose to live his dream, Keenan was an established author with a family, which is good news for readers, because his mature perspective provides a profound insight into this amazing land, with thoughtful analysis of its people, culture and future.

Travelling with his wife and two small boys - a decision he never regretted - Keenan visits the four geographical corners of the state from May to September.

Much of the book is dialogue with some of the quirky characters he meets, like Dan, the dog musher. From him we learn that Alaska is one dangerous place to live and only a foolish person would ignore the necessary precautions needed for survival.

Keenan also takes us to national parks with breathtaking scenery, shares intimate encounters with native Alaskans, learning of their spiritual beliefs, and finds out for himself what it is like living in the wilderness.

This is a book by a man who has a way with words, and is prepared to describe the ugly as well as the lovely aspects of Alaska.

He paints a fascinating portrait of a place most travellers long to see.