10.1 Travel Writing Extract: Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle by Dervla Murphy
Learning Intentions In this section you will … ✓ Learn about travel writing. ✓ Respond to a travel writing extract. ✓ Think about vocabulary strategies.
Travel writing is a genre of writing in which the author describes places they have visited and their experiences while travelling. Travel writing can appear as a newspaper or magazine article, informing readers about a specific destination. It can also be written as a book, giving a longer account of a journey or place. Today many travellers document their travels through a travel blog. Writing a travel blog usually uses a less formal style than writing for a book or newspaper.
Travel writing: n Is usually written in the first person (‘I’) and in the past tense. n Is usually descriptive – helping the reader to experience a place they haven’t visited. n Describes the people the writer met along the way. n Aims to entertain the reader as well as informing the reader. It is therefore full of anecdotes as well as information.
Before Reading
In 1963 an Irish woman, Dervla Murphy, set out on the journey of a lifetime: to cycle overland from Ireland to India. She travelled alone, just herself, her bicycle, an atlas and a few belongings. In the 1960s there weren’t any mobile phones, sat navs, Google maps, etc. Discuss in pairs: n What type of person would take this journey? n Would you consider going on a journey like this? Why? Why not? n Outline the possible dangers of such a trip. n Outline the reasons in favour of such a trip.
