What happens when two independent-minded travellers from vastly different backgrounds meet up on the road, connect deeply for a moment, but then must immediately part ways? And just as they both begin to realize the spark from this long-distance relationship may be worth a real commitment, a global pandemic locks them down on opposite sides of the world.
James is a serial solo backpacker at heart who works as a lawyer in Canada. Mirriam grew up on the other side of the world in rural Zambia, where she also dreamt of travelling the world. The paths of these unlikely lovers cross for the first time in Cape Town in 2018. Mirriam is about to leave her life in South Africa behind to start work on a cruise ship in Venice. James has just arrived after a fifty-two-day tall ship sailing adventure, a sabbatical from the office to contemplate his future that brought him across the ocean from Argentina via Antarctica.
The lllogical Adventure is a true story about meeting someone and gradually realizing over time that you don't want to live without them. Candidly told from each of their two perspectives, this memoir is a jet-setting tale of exploration, of universal questions of chance and fate, and love's enduring power to overcome distance and cultural differences, no matter the odds.
The Illogical Adventure recounts the story of an unlikely cross-continental romance between two independent-minded travellers - from their brief but fateful first meeting in Cape Town, through to a dowry ceremony in rural Africa a few years later during the Covid pandemic and beyond. "A beautiful, well-crafted, globe-trotting, cross-cultural love story… read it when you can, it will lift your spirits."
What happens when two independent-minded travellers from vastly different backgrounds meet up on the road, connect deeply for a moment, but then must immediately part ways? And just as they both begin to realize the spark from this long-distance relationship may be worth a real commitment, a global pandemic locks them down on opposite sides of the world.
James is a serial solo backpacker at heart who works as a lawyer in Canada. Mirriam grew up on the other side of the world in rural Zambia, where she also dreamt of travelling the world. The paths of these unlikely lovers cross for the first time in Cape Town in 2018. Mirriam is about to leave her life in South Africa behind to start work on a cruise ship in Venice. James has just arrived after a fifty-two-day tall ship sailing adventure, a sabbatical from the office to contemplate his future that brought him across the ocean from Argentina via Antarctica.
The lllogical Adventure is a true story about meeting someone and gradually realizing over time that you don't want to live without them. Candidly told from each of their two perspectives, this memoir is a jet-setting tale of exploration, of universal questions of chance and fate, and love's enduring power to overcome distance and cultural differences, no matter the odds. TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE 6Cape Town, South Africa - April 29, 2018
PART ONE - SEEK
CHAPTER ONE 11Patagonia, Chile/Argentina – February 2018
CHAPTER TWO 19Zambia – 1992 to 2008
CHAPTER THREE 29Dublin, Ireland – March 2000Sahara Desert, Morocco – February 2011
CHAPTER FOUR 40Zambia – 2009 to 2011South Africa – 2011 to 2018
CHAPTER FIVE 51Ha Long Bay, Vietnam – April 2012Cape Horn to Antarctica to Cape Town – March to April 2018
PART TWO - FIND
CHAPTER SIX 63Cape Town, South Africa – April 2018Cape Breton, Canada – September 2018
CHAPTER SEVEN 73Venice, Switzerland, Amsterdam – October 2018 / March 2019
CHAPTER EIGHT 87Mombasa, Kenya – May 2019Barcelona, Spain – September 2019
CHAPTER NINE 99Zambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe – November 2019 to January 2020
PART THREE - YIELD
CHAPTER TEN 115Zanziba
