What da cover says: This is the story of a professional British tree climber, cameraman and adventurer, who has made a career out of travelling the world, filming wildlife for the BBC and climbing trees.
James’s climbs take him around the globe, scaling the most incredible and majestic trees in existence: the strangler fig tree of Borneo, the monolithic Congolese moabi tree, the fern-covered howler tree of Costa Rica and the colossal mountain ash of Australia. On the way he meets native tribes and jungle cats, he gets stung by African bees and chased by gorillas, and he spends his nights in a hammock pitched hundreds of feet up in the air, with only the stars above him.
What I says: The Man Who Climbs Trees or as I like to call it “How much does nature hate James Aldred?” Two things blew my mind in this book, the scale of some of these trees and how many times James came close to being killed by wildlife. The scene with the bees was stunning, how he got out of that situation shows just how tough he was. I once got stung on the foot by a bee and was limping for ages, not sure how I would handle a swarm attacking me whilst dangling in a tree.
I loved how the book is laid out, you’re thrown right into a scene with James’ first desperate climb to safety and you see something click in his head and the obsession begins. Him climbing trees must be destiny as he meets the right people and gets the start in a wonderful career rigging ropes into trees for documentaries, eventually recording video too.
The writing is very good, James’ love of trees really comes across with each tree he picks to climb, the book is essentially tree after tree but somehow each tree’s personality is captured and this keeps your interest going. One thing the book is missing is photo’s I read it on the kindle and there were none, I found his website which has some interesting stuff and makes a great addition to the reading experience. JamesAldred.com
A really exciting nature read.
Gnome Appreciation Society 