Walking Europe's last wilderness : a journey through the carpathian mountains / Nick Thorpe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thorpe, Nick, 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Thorpe, Nick, 1960---Travel--Carpathian Mountains Region.

Thorpe, Nick.

Adventure and adventurers.

Carpathian Mountains--Description and travel.

Carpathian Mountains.

Genre:

Travel writing

Physical Description:

1 online resource (400 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, [2025]

Summary:

An evocative voyage through the Carpathian mountain range and its threatened landscape, peoples, and history The Carpathian Mountains of Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine are Europe’s last true wilderness. A landscape of great spruce and beech forests, grass meadows, and ancient villages, its people contend daily with the elements—as well as Europe’s last large carnivores. But this fragile ecosystem is now under threat, from climate change and illegal logging. Journeying from the banks of the Danube to Transylvania, Nick Thorpe guides us through the history and ecology of the watershed of Europe, between the Black Sea and the Baltic. For a thousand years the Carpathians have been a place of refuge, of identity and belonging, where powerful rulers and dynasties fought to gain control over rich gold seams and the unruly inhabitants of strategic valleys. Today, its inhabitants struggle to protect its vast forest habitat from urban sprawl as well as logging. Drawing on interviews with shepherds, foresters and loggers, and his four decades of experience in the region, Thorpe sheds light on a neglected part of Europe—where bears, wolves, chamois, and lynxes still roam.

Contents:

Cover

Halftitle page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION: NEW SONGS FROM THE WEST

CHAPTER 1 ADONIS IN THE GRASSLANDS

CHAPTER 2 STONE WALLS AND FALCONS

CHAPTER 3 HERONS AND HEROINES

CHAPTER 4 IN PRAISE OF GOATS

CHAPTER 5 THE HIGH TATRAS

CHAPTER 6 AND TIME STOPPED UNRAVELLING

CHAPTER 7 EVERYWHERE A FOREIGNER, NOWHERE A STRANGER

CHAPTER 8 THE NEW GREECE

CHAPTER 9 THE BLACK TYSA

CHAPTER 10 THE WORLD STAINED RED

CHAPTER 11 THE BEARS OF SYNEVYR

PLATES

CHAPTER 12 THE BRIDGE AT SLATINA

CHAPTER 13 TRAVELS IN AN ARMCHAIR

CHAPTER 14 HEARTS LIKE FLAGS

CHAPTER 15 THE FORESTER'S TALE

CHAPTER 16 THE BULLET OR THE BIN

CHAPTER 17 A WAVE OF MADNESS

CHAPTER 18 TO THE STONE PUB

CHAPTER 19 THE GYPSIES OF THE ORKO

CHAPTER 20 WOLF, LAMB, LEOPARD

CHAPTER 21 THE FUTURE OF MANKIND

CHAPTER 22 ON CHICKEN MOUNTAIN

CHAPTER 23 RIVERS OF GOLD

CHAPTER 24 HERCULES AND THE HYDRA

FURTHER READING

INDEX.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780300281590

0300281595

OCLC:

1485003182