Amanda Jayne’s hunger for traveling has filled her life with death-defying adventure. From riding on the edges of cliffs in rickety buses to having a tummy bug in the unbearable cold while climbing a mountain to falling out of a boat for the rapids to throw her any which way they pleased to being stricken with typhoid to encountering an angry African tribe, each of these adventures made me ever so thankful to be safe and sound at home.
I prefer to experience adventures like the ones she had by reading about them. Even though I knew full well that she survived them all because I was reading a book she wrote about them, each tale still had me sitting on the edge of my seat worried about what was going to happen to her.
Each chapter starts out with the reasons for her near-death experience and ends with tips on how not to die followed by a lesson learned from the experience. All of the stories are great, but the first three are my favorites.
“Elemental Mistakes” – If you can’t understand the language that the locals are speaking when they frantically attempt to tell you something, you need to find out what they are saying.
“Panic in the Pampas” – The experienced guide is replaced by one with little to no experience, and the group ends up lost in serpent-infested waters in the Amazon.
“Snake on a Raft” – Snakes are awesome, but you really don’t want to piss one off.
Amazon Link: Close Encounters of the Traveling Kind
Recommended Article: Amanda Jayne Guest Post/Interview – Adventure, Cats, and Near-Death Experiences
praying mantis, PxHere
Favorite Sentences:
I continued to bless Mother Earth with the contents of my stomach at regular intervals as we clambered on.
John pulled at me as we crawled back to the path and began staggering down like two paralytic drunks, breathing in the style of two old men who’d smoked 60 a day for life and were in the end stages of emphysema.
That morning, we didn’t see so many animals on our river jaunt, which wasn’t surprising as the grunting and slapping and moaning sounds coming from our boat would have scared Freddie Kruger away.
A praying mantis landing across your face is a screech-worthy offense in my opinion but once we’d found a snake in our bed that it took three men to carefully capture between them, I felt the praying mantis hadn’t been so bad after all.
New Words Learned:
bamboo culm – A culm is a stem or stalk, so a bamboo culm would be a bamboo stalk.
giardia – a parasite in the intestines of vertebrates
udon noodles – thick Japanese noodles made from wheat flour and usually served in a soup
About the Author:
Amanda Jayne never wanted to live a normal life, which she has achieved with resounding success so far. She realized books were magic and could take you to other places, times, and universes when she was very young and wanted to become an author immediately. However, she waited several decades so she could do other things first.
Her love for travel began with a six-month-long South Africa trip at age 18 and continued with short jaunts in Eastern Europe during the years she worked in the mental health field.
As soon as she realized offices, rules, and regulations were not her thing, she left her job and her native England to find out more about the world and the amazing array of people living in it. She spent 10 years living and traveling in various countries and finally returned to the UK in 2009 after gaining a masters in Spiritual Psychology in the USA and walking 1,200 km around the 88 temples pilgrimage in Shikoku, Japan.
These days she teaches Jikiden Reiki, makes websites, and writes books. She’s sometimes quite busy. Some of the things she loves are trees, art, being with friends, making up stories for her nephews, karaoke, cats, and dark chocolate, not necessarily in that order. She lives in a quiet corner of Kent in the UK and tries, but usually fails, to stay there for long periods of time.
Website: https://www.amandacjayne.com/author
Twitter: https://twitter.com/amandacjayne
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amandajayneauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandacjayne/
I’m so glad you enjoyed ‘Close Encounters of the Traveling Kind’ I loved it and agree it was edge of your seat. I would have love to experience some of those travel adventures when I was younger but am a chicken now. LOL!