Tschiffely's Ride

This is a fantastic story. I read it when I was a kid, and still love it. It's a good read for an adventure traveller.

This is by far the greatest horseback travel ride ever accomplished. You can't put this book down from cover to cover. If you like this title you're sure to like the sequel "A Tale of Two Horses", the same ride but told by the horses themselves "Mancha & Gato"!

well okay maybe not but I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. Despite, or maybe because of, the simple matter-of-fact writing style this tale of an amazing, yet true, journey held my interest and I enjoyed every page. The book is basically a diary of Tschiffely's ride from inception to end, he writes simply of the trails taken, the hardships and joys and the people he met along the way. This is a tale of a bygone era when great adventures were undertaken without enormous budgets or near hysterical live reportage. Pages describe what must have been terrifying events with endearing understatement and the sort of modesty that most modern day heros cannot muster. Not only does this book put you into a different time and place but it encourages you to consider the possibilities within yourself.

FROM BUENOS AIRES TO WASHINGTON DC IN TWO AND A HALF YEARS ON HORSEBACK. A.F. TSCHIFFELY RODE TEN THOUSAND MILES FROM THE SOUTHERN CROSS TO THE POLAR STAR AROUND 1930. HE MORE THAN LIKELY WAS THE ONLY MAN EVER TO DO THIS AT ANY TIME; CERTAINLY TO WRITE ABOUT IT. REMOTE CITIES AND SEAPORTS, BACK TO THE PAST AND ON LONELY TRAILS DID THE MAN TRAVEL. TOUCHING FROM TIME TO TIME ON HARDSHIP, SOLVING PROBLEMS, CONFRONTING THE CURIOUS, HE AND HIS TWO HORSES HAD A GREAT ADVENTURE.

It's a bold undertaking by a man who learned to live very closely with two horses. The horses were the resource that enabled him to succeed in this adventure of 10,000 miles from Buenos Aires to Washington DC. It's a page-turner!