Marco Polo and his journey across the Silk Road to the Far East had always fascinated Tim Severin. When he was presented with an opportunity to follow in the explorers footsteps travelling from Venice across the Middle East to Afghanistan, he jumped at the chance. There was only one minor flaw in the plan, Tim and his companions would be travelling by motorbike and sidecar, but none of them had ever ridden a motorbike.

So begins the tale of their journey as they battle across deserts, through mountain passes overcoming floods, sandstorms and crashes. They even passed through the ominous sounding he Valley of the Assassins. Not only was riding the motorbike a struggle, the languages were a bit tricky for all three too. Severin even managed to squeeze in a camel ride seeking the famed apples of paradise in the Deh Bakri Pass.

This book is an enjoyable look at a world very different to ours today. But they were foolhardy. I cannot believe that none of them could ride a motorbike at the beginning. They had a little training, but still didn’t really gain a huge amount of competence throughout the journey. They did draw a lot from their trip, being on motorbikes they came to understand the people and culture of the countries that they visited much more than they would have done in a car or truck. Not a bad read; 2.5 stars ( )

Severin has written some very good books, but this is not one of them. The intention of following Marco Polo's route should make for some wonderful adventures, insights and story telling. But this book makes it clear that while there are adventures to be related, they are interspersed over and over again with episodes of priggishness and cultural insensitivity. One could credit Severin for revealing his faults to the reader, until you realize that as a young man (21 fresh out of Oxford) he was just as insensitive and careless an author as he was a traveller. The writing, apart from some descriptive talent, has little to recommend it. The language is pompous and obscures the scene it attempts to portray. The only hint of insight is in the forward to the 1984 edition, written twenty two years after the first publication. There Severin describes this journey as a youthful adventure, and this book as 'undergraduate' and 'old fashioned'.

Severin was, twenty two years later, a very good writer with an excellent reputation as a traveller in other people's cultures. His attachment to this old story was seemingly strong enough to encourage him to republish it, but the reader may struggle to see much in it. Best sampled after reading some of Severin's later work, which will make the reader more liable to forgive this energetic but flawed account. It is recommended reading however, before tackling William Dalrymple's 1987 account of following Marco Polo's trail, 'In Xanadu'. Dalrymple, who was 22 when he wrote his account seems just as youthful and callow as Severin, but gets a little further along the trail and provides an interesting contrast of style. ( )

Whilst at oxford Tim severin (brendan voyage,sinbad voyage et al),
decided to clear up some bits of Marco polo's journey to the east. He talked a
friend into it & enlisted a cockney film maker. He somehow convinced BSA to
give him 2 motorcycles, to make the trip on. Unfortunatley none of the 3 could
ride, they all failed their uk Motorcycle test, but rode off anyway as their
IDPs covered bikes.

If you took "Motorcycle Diaries" and replaced the politics with
medieval history then this is what you get. There is some intresting stuff
about Marco's travels and some very intresting stuff (in the last chapter)
about expedition planning. ( )