Torre DeRoche is the author of two travel memoirs, Love with a Chance of Drowning (2013) and The Worrier’s Guide to the End of the World (due out September 2017). She has written for The Atlantic, The Guardian Travel, The Sydney Morning Herald, Emirates, and two Lonely Planet anthologies.
You’ve heard of the Lonely Planet guide, but what about the not-so-lonely planet guide? This is what happens when you have to share a beautiful getaway with a bunch of peculiar tourists in thongs … and I don’t mean the flip-flop variety.
“Hey, I have an idea,” my partner said one day out of the blue. His eyes were wide and his tongue was just short of hanging out in a happy pant —a facial expression that reads: I’m about to propose something c-ray-zee! “What idea?” I asked. “Let’s do a trek in Nepal.” “A trek?” I […]
The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert You don’t have to be a fan of Eat, Pray, Love to like Gilbert’s biography about the extraordinary (and peculiar) life of Eustace Conway. Gilbert reveals a story of a man who rejects society from an early age to live in the wild. In the foothills of […]
They say that you’re more likely to get struck by lightning, killed by a mosquito or hit by a Bachelorette Party bus* than get eaten by a shark. But if you’re Lynne Cox, these odds shift dramatically in favor of the snack-happy shark …
Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi (with Bernadette Brennan) The story When Tania Aebi left New York to sail the voluptuous circumference of Planet Earth, she was 18 years old and a sailing beginner, with no GPS, no long-range radio, and – get this! – no Facebook page. It all began when her dad delivered an ultimatum […]
I’m a romantic at heart; so pardon my sappy sentimentality while I describe the songs that inspire me to explore, live and love in my short time here on earth. Gamble Everything For Love by Ben Lee: Love makes people do crazy things , but as Ben Lee says: if you gamble everything for love you’re gonna be all right. All right?
180 Degrees South After viewing this documentary who wouldn’t want to sail a stretch of ocean, shipwreck on Easter Island, surf a bit, then hike a mountain in Chile? Nobody splits a head open, or gets eaten by a shark, it’s just all good times in the great outdoors. Best part is the song: Here’s […]
127 Hours If I was the protagonist of this story, the film would be titled Never because that’s the point at which I’d cut off my own arm to save myself. The Perfect Storm I don’t even need to see this film to get convulsive shivers; the cover alone does that to me. Just look […]
1. The awakening First, it starts with a mind-numbing boredom that seeps into your life like an insidious toxin, until one day you realize you’re sitting in front of the TV watching 45 minute-long infomercials about Ab-Blasters and Flowbees. “What is the point of life?” You hear yourself say out loud. This is the dawn […]
It’s a black night and the wind is vile. The waves must be twenty feet high. We’re tipping, staggering, flying down each angry wave and my stomach keeps bottoming out like we’re in a plummeting elevator. Our little boat, Amazing Grace, isn’t so amazing right now …
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