Departures & Arrivals

""Nothing... left such an indelible imprint on our minds as the moment when we discovered that the Ganges was only 40 centimetres deep and that our boat drew 46 centimetres,"" says Eric Newby (A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush), intrepid world traveler, in Departures & Arrivals. From the Palio in Siena, to China's Forbidden City, to Berwick-on-Tweed, Scotland, by bicycle, to crossing Syria by train, to landscaping his own back yard, Newby reaches back over the last 50-odd years in these recollections that combine old-school travelogue with self-deprecating humor. With wife and travel companion, Wanda, at his side, Newby dispenses insight into the human fascination with foreign adventure. Photos. ( May)