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The Dolphin’s Tooth

by Bruce Kirkby

An engineer by training, author Bruce Kirkby has turned his aversion to the nine-to-five rat race and a desk job into an abiding love of adventure travel, and makes a living at it. His second book, The Dolphin’s Tooth, boils down more than a decade of cycling, climbing, kayaking, rafting, and snorkelling into a fast-paced read, filled with near-calamitous events, bruises, blisters, bribes to local officials, and occasional gunfire. The book is not just an exploration of off-the-beaten-track locales – and there are plenty here, from the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan to the Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar (Burma) – but the evolution of a man from urban-guy-wearing-a-backwards-baseball-cap to seasoned traveller.

Kirkby starts out as an eager, inexperienced youth, but grows into himself with each excursion, the waters of rivers near and far and the sun and vegetation fermenting him into someone comfortable in the wilderness. Through one of his mentors, he is taught the concept of “no-trace camping,” whereby one leaves the wilderness in the state one found it. When the breadth of Kirkby’s travel interests threatens to become too much – “the same rat running a different race” – because of sponsors, permissions, and deadlines, he is savvy enough to scale things back. He realizes bigger is not always better, though not so much that he resists the call of Mount Everest.

This is no Bill Bryson-esque exploration of cultural foibles. Kirkby is mostly exploring hostile territory that is guarded by either officious soldiers with AK47s resting on their hips or sheer cliffs or crocodiles. Kirkby’s thirst for the history of his destinations helps fill out the narratives. He gives capsule histories and highlights pivotal events, which add nuance and flavour in-between such quotidian tasks as cooking, paddling, hauling gear, and setting up camp.

One of the ironies of a book like this and its earnest pleas to respect the environment and preserve pristine pockets of the world is that it stimulates interest in those very places, which means they don’t go unexplored for long. Mount Everest is the most poignant example. What used to be attempted only by seasoned professionals now seems open to anyone with a Gore-Tex jacket and a chequebook.

 

Reviewer: Stephen Knight

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

DETAILS

Price: $34.99

Page Count: 372 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 0-7710-9566-X

Released: Oct.

Issue Date: 2005-11

Categories: Reference

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