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 Listen to Excess Baggage for
28ÌýJulyÌý2007
Crete is the largest of the Greek islands. It is sometimes called the cradle of European civilisation with its Minoan culture accepted as the first major civilised society on the continent from as early as 2,700BC.
Nowadays it is largely agricultural with tourism making up a significant part of its economy. ÌýIts beaches and resorts as well as its archaeological sites attract huge numbers.Ìý But, despite its rich history and challenging landscape, many aspects of Crete are still relatively unknown.
John McCarthy is joined by two regular visitors to the island. Travel writer Christopher Somerville has just published his latest book The Golden Step: a walk through the heart of Crete and writer Susanna Hoe is currently writing a series on islands looking at their association with the women who lived, travelled or worked there.
Tuk-tuks or auto rickshaws are well known in some big cities in Asia.Ìý The little covered scooter type three wheelers are used for everything from delivery vans to taxis.Ìý But on the whole they don’t venture much outside the city that is their home.Ìý Not so for Ting Tong, the tuk tuk of Jo Huxster and Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent who drove it from its natural habitat in Bangkok to Brighton, a distance of 12,561 miles, according to Ting Tong’s milometer.
Presented by John McCarthy
Photo: John, Antonia, Jo in Ting Tong the Tuk-Tuk
This week’s guests:
Ìýis a travel writer and poet, he was awarded the Wyvern Prize for poetry in 2004.Ìý With thirty books to his credit, including the books to accompany the ´óÏó´«Ã½ ‘Coast’ series, Christopher has also written AA guides on walks in Britain, Crete, Ireland.
Christopher first visited Crete as a schoolboy on an educational cruise and got the impression it was hot and hospitable.Ìý As young man he was inspired by his reading of The Cretan Runner, the memoirs of wartime resistance fighter, shepherd and classicist George Psychoundakis, which had been translated by the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor who had also been a war hero in Crete.Ìý He went back as an adult in 1999 for the AA guide and has been back every year since.
His latest book is The Golden Step: a walk through the heart of Crete is an account of a two month, 300 mile walk through the middle of Crete from east to west.
The Golden Step: A Mountain Trail Through Crete
by Christopher Somerville
Publisher: Haus Publishing Limited
ISBN-10: 1904950973
ISBN-13: 978-1904950974
The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation
by George Psychoundakis, Patrick Leigh Fermor (Translator)
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition
ISBN-10: 0140273220
ISBN-13: 978-0140273229
has spent half her life abroad, in Kenya, Switzerland, Italy, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong.Ìý Her books reflect her interest about foreign places and the women, mostly British, who have lived there.
Ten years in Hong Kong have seen the publication of five books.Ìý In the most recent, Women at the Siege, Peking 1900 and In Chinese Footprints: Exploring Women's History in China, Hong Kong and Macau, Susanna revealed the links between the past and the present andÌýhow women activists can pick up the baton handed them by their forebears.Ìý She plans to celebrate her time in Hong Kong with the publication, on the tenth anniversary of its return to China, of Watching the Flag Come Down: an Englishwoman in Hong Kong-1997.
Susanna is now working on a series of her devising 'Of Islands and Women'; the first was entitled Madeira: Women, History, Books and Places, it was followed by Crete: Women, History, Books and Places, next will be Tasmania and then Sri Lanka.
Publisher: The Women's History Press
ISBN-10: 0953773078
ISBN-13: 978-0953773077
Watching the Flag Come Down: An Englishwoman in Hong Kong, 1987-97
Publisher: Holo Books The Arbitration Press
ISBN-10: 0954405676
ISBN-13: 978-0954405670
Jo Huxster is a medical student.ÌýÌý works for a TV production company.Ìý They travelled 12,500 miles in fourteen weeks from Bangkok to Brighton in a tuk-tuk.Ìý In 2002 while on holiday to Thailand Jo was struck with tuk-tuks, the covered three wheeled scooter type vehicles that are used as taxis and small vans throughout cities in India and South Asia. Last January they started organising the trip in earnest;Ìýit had to be arranged by April if they were to avoid the Asian monsoons.
After organising an international driving license for motor cycle type vehicles and sorting out some sponsorship and a charity, , they flew to Bangkok to pick up their tuk-tuk.Ìý Named Ting Tong, it was given a few modifications for the long journey like raised suspension for better ground clearance and seat belts for European regulations.
Jo and Antonia were given a couple of hours instruction on emergency repairs by the engineers in the workshop and took a few spare parts.Ìý Once Ting Tong had been sprayed bright pink they set off on their journey through Thailand, Laos, China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, France finally arriving, without even getting puncture en route, in Brighton.
Tuk Tuk to the road: two girls, three wheels, 12500 miles
Publisher: The Friday Project Limited
ISBN-10: 1905548656
ÌýISBN-13: 978-1905548651
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| PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES |
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John McCarthy is a widely travelled journalist and presenter with a particular interest in the Middle East.
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