I am reviewing the book The True Peruvian Route by Mark Horrell which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. Mount Aconcagua is just about in Argentina and is very close to the border with Peru. It's the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere at a tad under 7,000 metres. This book is about an ascent up this mountain by the author and an assorted group from several different countries some of which were a bit inexperienced. They went with a peruvian guide who had discovered this route up the mountain some years ago. The traditional way up Aconcagua is called the Polish Glacier Route which was first climbed by a polish team although technically it doesn't follow a glacier. The other route is called The False Polish Glacier Route which the author renamed The True Peruvian Route and is the best route up the mountain because it avoids the ice sheet which tends to go hard when it doesn't snow and it becomes difficult to drive anything into it like spikes. Their guide held the world record for the most ascents of Aconcagua at 56 & apparently on 3 occasions when he was taking a more gentle approach up the mountain, a stray dog followed him to the summit. Someone did joke that maybe the dog has climbed the mountain more times than him. According to Argentine law there is a basecamp part way up the mountain, manned by doctors which examine you to make sure you are able to climb the mountain. These doctors are quite junior and a bit inexperienced about altitude and sometimes make the wrong decision at least according to the author. Often the climber is the best judge of whether he is capable or not at least when an experienced climber. I think he might have a point there. Apparently Mark has a web site at http://markhorrell.com .This book isn't quite as good as the one on Columbia but is still pretty good.

The book I read to research this post was Cocuy Sniffing In Colombia by Mark Horrell which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. The title to this book is a bit of a joke because as most people know most of the world's cocaine comes from Colombia and many addicts come to this country for that reason. The author being white was accosted by people selling coke but he is a mountaineer who writes about his experiences and that is why he chose to visit. This book is quite short but is quite informative and tells you quite a bit about the recent history of this country. Bogarta is the capital of Colombia and has 7 million people and is situated on a plateau 2,600 metres high. Colombia is starting to find its feet as a tourist destination and until fairly recently it was very risky to venture outside this city due to kidnappings of both tourists and locals by guerrillas and drug lords who controlled much of the surrounding area. They used to also force families in those areas to give their sons to them as members and if they refused they killed the entire family. Fairly recently the government sent 20,000 troops in to drive the guerrillas back into the lowlands so much of the country is now relatively safe. There is a novel which was made into a film called Clear And Present Danger by Tom Clancy which is based on this war in Colombia and also stars Harrison Ford and is very good. Anyway getting back to Colombia the author climbed the 2nd highest peak in this country and toured much of the mountains and glaciers surrounding Bogarta. The glaciers are disappearing at an alarming rate and it won't be long before they vanish completely. He does also say he'd love to climb Colombia's highest peak but tourists are banned from that area which is owned and populated by indigenous people or a tribal group. The author is writing a feature length book about his ascent of Mt Everest which he did recently but has written quite a lot of short ebooks about his visits to various mountainous areas around the world. They are normally priced quite cheaply.

The book I read to research this post was The Hayling Railway by Peter Paye which is an excellent book which I bought from a specialist bookshop. This is a new book which has only recently been published. This is the 3rd edition. Hayling Island is a moderately successful seaside near Portsmouth & Havant. It's not as popular for holidays as it was and in the 19th century there was a railway linking it to Havant. There is a fine beach on the south coast of the island and much of the surrounding sea only makes it an island at high tide so it isn't a true island. Having said that the island is a substantial size. The Hayling Railway Company leased the railway from the London, Brighton & South Coast Company in 1872 & much of the railway was single track and ran on an embankment to avoid flooding. Nearby Portsmouth is a major naval base & from Havant the railway is linked to the rest of the South Coast Network. Havant station & Hayling South station were expanded and platforms were added. Some of the track was upgraded to dual track which enabled a more frequent service to be run. Alas in 1962 along with many other railways it was closed. Havant & Portsmouth which are both quite sizeable are still connected by railway to the rest of the network. I really enjoyed this book and it kept my interest throughout. Also it's a reasonable length at around 150 pages. Peter Paye is something of an expert on East Anglian railways and has written quite a lot of books about that. His books are consistently good. Finally Hayling Island isn't that far from the Isle of Wight which is a bigger island off Southampton and more well known as a holiday resort.