A Single Swallow: An Epic Journey from South Africa to South Wales - Softcover

A Single Swallow

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Book Express (NZ)
(Wellington, New Zealand)

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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. 327 pages. Cover worn.A journey of 6,000 miles across two con tinents and fourteen countries is nothing to swallows: they do it twice a year. But for a writer and birdwatcher, this is the expe dition of a lifetime. By trains, cars, buses, motorbikes, trucks, canoes, planes, one camel and three ships, Horatio Clare followe d migrating swallows (Hirundo rustica) from reed beds outside Blo emfontein, where millions roost in February, to a barn in Wales, where a pair nest in May. From the slums of Cape Town to the pala ces of Algiers, through Pygmy villages where pineapples grow wild , to the Gulf of Guinea where the sea blazes with oil flares, A S ingle Swallow is a journey through the modern world to the tune o f an ancient rhythm. It is a story of old empires and modern trib es, of the horrors of power and the wonders of kindness. It inclu des a witch-doctor's recipe for stewed swallow, explains how to t ravel without money or a passport, describes a terrifying inciden t involving three Spanish soldiers and a tiny orange dog, betrays several swallow secrets and proves that Wales exists only becaus e of Ryan Giggs. It also tests the wisdom of an ancient piece of hearsay: the Zulus say that those who follow the swallows never c ome back . . . Magical, inspiring, beautifully written with passi on and purpose, A Single Swallow is a thrilling book about the in tersection of the natural and the human worlds, sending shivers d own the spine and lifting the heart. Seller Inventory # 782ab

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