Be The Jam

I have been doing research in the Bodliean Library for a few weeks now in the hope that book learning will help once on the ground in  South America. Yesterday I had to order a book called something like "The Amazon from it's Sources to the Sea" it was only after I had gone to the librarian to ask for instructions on how to get to the book that it struck me. I had managed to get the whole way through my degree without once ordering a book from the library, I didn't have a clue how the system works. Some people spent their entire undergraduate life in the library, I was always a bit suspicious of them, and where are they now? I don't know but I'm pretty sure they weren't sitting by the Thames last night as the sun set drinking tea by a fire. No, I expect they can afford to go to the pub in the evening, or even to buy a kettle and a house to put it in so they don't have to light a fire. I rather imagine this morning they would have had a shower rather than going for a swim in the river.

Crispin is a mate of mine from college, he took a similar view on libraries to me now he works for charities and such like and spent a year in Rwanda a while back. He is talking about going back for another year, I'm trying to persuade him to come to South America for a bit, he climbs I'm trying to win him over with a promise of living in the Andes for a bit. He is wavering. Wavering is good, all it needs is a timely push and he'll be on board.

Currently Crispin is living in Oxford so I emailed him yesterday saying lets build a raft and take it to London one weekend. His reply, which was enthusiastic, mentioned that it takes a week to get to London by narrow boat. Crispin knows stuff, that sort of a thing could be invaluable. I know more stuff than I did yesterday thanks to "The Amazon from its Sources to the Sea", I know that from latitude 73 degrees the river Napo in Ecuador does not go over any waterfalls and there is no white water, from there to the Amazon (or Amazons as it is more rightly known) is reasonably flat. The only thing to worry about would be getting run over by huge vessels; or crushed by logs being floated down river for sale, or getting lost, or scurvy; or pirates; or getting marooned; or trapped in ice and having to eat the cabin boy, or or or, or any of the other things that come to you in the middle of the night.