Nathan James Thomas founded Intrepid Times in 2014, and it has since grown into a popular home for travel writing with heart, attracting hundreds of contributors and thousands of readers from around the world. His own travel writing has been published in places like Roads and Kingdoms, Outpost Magazine, and New Zealand Memories. Originally from New Zealand, Nathan lived in China for two years and is currently based in Eastern Europe.
Jennifer Roberts is a U.S. native whose adventures have stretched across four continents, from the valley of Chiang Mai to the heights of Machu Picchu. After developing a taste for travel on a high school trip to Italy, she left her small hometown in Illinois for an adventurous year in Thailand. She then moved to southern Chile, where she currently lives and works as a freelance editor, writer, and English teacher.
Dimity Powell –
Intrepid Times introduces this colourful and stirring collection of travel anecdotes, recollections and harrowing incidents with the notion that ‘the difference between travel and adventure is the presence of fear’. I couldn’t agree more. Even a leisurely sojourn can morph into a heart-racing experience of dread when heightened by feelings of isolation and anxiousness brought about by an inability to understand the language, culture or motivations of the land through which you are trekking. But without this kind of innate unease, the edge of adventure is eroded. Excitement and a sense of triumph are sometimes best savored after your guts have roiled a little with terror.
This is why I wrote about one of my fearful travel encounters and why I am deliriously proud to have it included in this anthology. But perhaps more telling, is how much I’ve enjoyed travelling again, albeit vicariously, through the tales of others. These true stories about staring down fear full in the face told through the eyes of fellow travellers, trekkers, and hustlers of life keen to, well … live… are truly emotional and inspirational. Not only do they entertain and enthrall (some causing audible gasping), they demonstrate the sheer tensile strength of the human will and our ability to endure. A quality, like this book, to value and revere.