Inspiring Travel Writing from Robin Hanbury-Tenison
Robin Hanbury-Tenison, OBE, is a Founder and President of Survival International, the world's leading organisation supporting tribal peoples. Named by the Sunday Times as "the greatest explorer of the past 20 years", he has been on over 24 expeditions, including as leader of the Royal Geographical Society's largest expedition, taking 140 scientists to study the rainforests of Sarawak. This research and his book, Mulu: the Rainforest, started the international concern for tropical rainforests.
On Survival's behalf he has led several overseas missions, visiting 33 Indian tribes as a guest of the Brazilian government in 1971; Indians of the Darien in Panama and Colombia in 1972; leading an investigation into excessive logging in Sarawak in 1988; assessing the status of the indigenous peoples of eastern Siberia in 1992 and 1994; and in NE India in 1995.
He is a Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society and an International Fellow of the Explorers Club. Among his many publications are: The Oxford Book of Exploration; Mulu: The Rain Forest; and an autobiography, Worlds Apart. His newest book, Thames & Hudson's The Seventy Great Journeys in History, is now out.
On Survival's behalf he has led several overseas missions, visiting 33 Indian tribes as a guest of the Brazilian government in 1971; Indians of the Darien in Panama and Colombia in 1972; leading an investigation into excessive logging in Sarawak in 1988; assessing the status of the indigenous peoples of eastern Siberia in 1992 and 1994; and in NE India in 1995.
He is a Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society and an International Fellow of the Explorers Club. Among his many publications are: The Oxford Book of Exploration; Mulu: The Rain Forest; and an autobiography, Worlds Apart. His newest book, Thames & Hudson's The Seventy Great Journeys in History, is now out.
Articles by Robin Hanbury-Tenison
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The North West Passage
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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Canada
Almost none of the great explorers, who hold such fascination for the reading public and whose courage and exploits we admire so much, were in fact the first to discover the lands with whom their names are associated. Only Antarctica, the North Pole...
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Full-length biography
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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France
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Provence
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Robin Hanbury-Tenison, OBE, (65) is a Founder and President of Survival International, the world’s leading organisation supporting tribal peoples. Named by the Sunday Times as “the greatest explorer of the past 20 years”, he has...
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A Peak in Darien
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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Panama
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other areas of Panama
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Darien
"Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyesHe star'd at the Pacific - and all his menLooked at each other with a wild surmise - Silent, upon a peak in Darien."I hope every schoolchild, or at least every geography student, knows that Keats was wrong...
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The Fatal Dilemma
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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Indonesia
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Sulawesi Celebes
I have been fortunate during my exploring life to have many magical meetings with tribal people. Two spring to mind:In the early seventies I walked across Eastern Sulawesi, travelling with the To Wana people. As I neared the northern coast, I came...
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The Fatal Impact
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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French Polynesia
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Society Islands
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Tahiti
The tragedy of exploration has been the terrible legacy of disease and demoralisation explorers have so often left behind them. The combination of the arrogance of those who knew they were infinitely superior to any natives they met, their failure...
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Heroes of the Ice
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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France
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Provence
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As one who has favoured hot places for my own journeys, my admiration for polar explorers has always been tinged with incomprehension at what drives them to endure such torment. During the great heroic age of Antarctic exploration, just before the...
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The Hungry Desert
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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Australia
The exploration of the arid interior of Australia is a story of intense suffering, thirst and hunger. The early pioneers referred constantly to their supplies or, more often, the lack of them. To survive, it was necessary to eat absolutely every...
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A Longing for Lhasa
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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Tibet
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Lhasa Region
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Lhasa
The forbidden city of Lhasa has held a special fascination for explorers since two Jesuit missionaries, John Grueber and Albert d'Orville, became the first Europeans to reach it in 1661. They travelled from Peking, being unable to return to Macao...
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Obituary of Sebastian Snow
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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Ecuador
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Amazon Basin
Sebastian Snow was the last truly eccentric British explorer. I always thought he should have come to a romantic end, like Tony Last in A Handful of Dust, and on a couple of occasions I suggested ways he might achieve this. Instead he died on April...
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Hovering through Africa
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Robin Hanbury-T...
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United States
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Texas
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Houston
The Geographical Magazine Amazonas Expedition of 1968, which traveled through Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, had set a world record for the longest hovercraft journey at 3000 km. In October 1969, 15 months later, the Trans-African Hovercraft...