Journeys ​to the Other Side of the World (Zoo Quest 4-6.) 1 csillagozás

We drove three hundred miles that day through the rolling hills that form the spine of Madagascar. The roads were almost empty except for taxis-brousse, the little decrepit overloaded bush taxis that careered unsteadily between villages picking up anyone by the roadside who flagged them down. Although they were always so full that arms, legs and heads overflowed through their windows, we never saw them fail to pick up a possible fare. The people waited for them by the roadside, sitting on bundles or boxes, wrapped in their white togas, miles away from any visible settlement. If we had had room, we could have made a good trade ferrying passengers from village to village, but the back of our truck was packed almost to the roof with stores and equipment and it seemed impossible that anyone else could cram themselves inside. Impossible, that is, until we came across one of the taxi-brousse that had been so overloaded that its rear had subsided to the ground with a broken axle. It was then that we discovered that in fact we had room for two baskets of chickens, three men, a small boy and a lady who, by the most charitable estimate, weighed at least sixteen stone.

195-196. oldal, Book Two - Sifakas and Giant Birds (Two Roads, 2018)

Unfortunately, Charles was unable to come on this trip. Instead, I was joined by Geoffrey Mulligan, a cameraman of my own age and a man with a reputation for having an unquenchable appetite for physical exertion. When I outlined the plans to him, he became as excited as I was by the prospects.
'This jumping ceremony', he said, 'we must make sure we really do it justice. Would you like me to try the jump myself, filming as I fall?'

90. oldal, Book One - Return to the Pacific (Two Roads, 2018)