The Boy Who Biked the World: Riding the Americas: Part two: Riding the Americas: 2 - Softcover

Alastair Humphreys

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1903070872 ISBN 13: 9781903070871

Publisher: Eye Books, 2014

Synopsis

Part two of the bestselling trilogy

Tom dreamed of being an adventurer, but people told him he was crazy, so he decided to prove them wrong by cycling round the world.

The first book of adventures followed Tom across Europe and through the mysterious landscapes of Africa.

In Part Two, he pedals north from the tip of South America up through the Americas towards Alaska. He must contend with deserts, jungles and the massive mountains of the Andes. He meets grizzly bears, fascinating locals and even a memorable guinea pig. Tom learns about the world, and himself, as he tackles this epic journey.

Based on the author’s personal experiences and with engaging illustrations, maps and handwritten journal entries throughout, this book provides an immersive experience for any young adventurer.

About this title

About the Author

Alastair Humphreys is a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. He has cycled around the world, rowed the Atlantic Ocean and walked a lap of the M25 – one of his pioneering microadventures.
He is the author of 14 books, including Great Adventurers, which won the Stanford’s Children’s Travel Book of the Year and the Teach Primary Award for Non-Fiction.
He has written eight books for Eye including the bestselling The Boy Who Biked the World trilogy, a series of novels for 9–12-year-olds based on the real-life adventures he recounted in Moods of Future Joys, Thunder and Sunshine and Ten Lessons from the Road. His more recent The Girl Who Rowed the Ocean is a similarly novelised version of his transatlantic crossing. It was shortlisted for the Stanford’s Children’s Travel Book of the Year.
He is a qualified teacher.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Boy Who Biked The World

By Alastair Humphreys, Tom Morgan-Jones

Eye Books Ltd

Copyright © 2014 Alastair Humphreys
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-903070-87-1

Contents

Tom's Route Round the World, 
Banana Crisis on the High Seas, 
Patagonia: Land of Big-Footed Giants, 
Adventures in the Andes, 
Bolivia: A High, Cold World of Wonders, 
The Witches of La Paz, 
The Marvels and Mysteries of Peru, 
Lunchtime in Ecuador, 
Cycling Through Colombia, 
Canals and Crocodiles, 
Volcanoes, Jungle and Desert Mirages, 
Hollywood and Giant Redwoods, 
The Sea-To-Sky Highway, 
The Tom-Tiki, 
Alaska: The Final Road To The Midnight Sun, 
The Boy Who Biked the World: Part 3, 
Your Journal, 
About Eye Books, 
About the Author, 

CHAPTER 1

Banana Crisis on the High Seas

Tom was sweating. He was nervous. Really nervous. He jiggled up and down, fidgeting from one foot to the other. If you were looking at Tom, you might have thought that he was desperate for the toilet. But this was even more serious than that! Tom was in a hurry, perhaps the biggest hurry he had ever been in. And nobody seemed to care. It appeared — as he bobbed up and down looking at his watch every single second — that everybody was moving in slow motion.

A man strolled about, looking as though he had not a care in the world. A lady was standing still and shaking her shoulders to the beat of the music in her headphones. Standing still! How could anyone have the time to just stand and stare in one place?! Oh dear, oh dear, thought poor Tom. I really am in trouble now. I really am late ...

In front of him was the cause of Tom's problems. A little old lady. To anyone else, she appeared to be a nice, kind, slightly slow old lady. A little bit like your own Grandma, perhaps. Tom was behind her in the queue and she was taking an age to pay for her shopping.

"Come on!" screamed Tom inside his head. "Hurry up! Please!"

He was too polite to actually shout this out loud, though he very much wanted to. He was trying everything he could think of, all his superhero powers of firing laser beams from his eyes or shrinking her to the size of an ant, or making her explode. But nothing he did seemed to work. Because Tom did not have any super powers. He was just a normal boy. The little old lady was in absolutely no hurry. Tom's journey round the world was about to come crashing to a halt. He couldn't decide whether to scream or to cry. So instead he just jiggled a bit more, sweated a bit more, and looked at his watch again and again.

He was going to miss the boat.

* * *

"Don't miss the boat, young Tom!" were the last words Captain Horrocks had said. "We can't wait: we leave at high tide."

Captain Horrocks was about to sail across the Atlantic Ocean on his small yacht, Damsel. He had kindly invited Tom to join his crew on the adventurous crossing from Africa to South America.

Tom had set off from his home to try to ride his bike all the way round the world. He had already pedalled from England to South Africa. Now he needed to get across the ocean so that he could cycle up the Americas. Tom didn't want to travel by aeroplane — there is no adventure on an aeroplane, only soggy food and annoyingly small TV screens. So Captain Horrocks' invitation to sail to South America was an exciting opportunity. The chance might not come again.

Captain Horrocks and his crew had been hard at work to get the boat ready. Everything needs to be in good condition before you set out to cross an ocean. They repaired ever

Edition details

• Publisher: Eye Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1903070872
• ISBN 13: 9781903070871
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Tom Morgan-Jones
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Martha Ellen Zenfell