As with much of the best travel writing, it’s the voice that makes readers want to stick with a writer over a long journey, and Barbara Savage’s voice is that of the best kind of travelling companion: honest, unpretentious, brave, and funny. She talks frankly about challenging aspects of cycle-touring, especially couples cycle-touring, that are usually played for laughs or omitted altogether from these kinds of books. The petty fights in the ditch, the unabashed yelling, the temper-tantrums. But she also describes the small acts of kindness, the making up, and the profound intimacy of living within a few feet of one’s partner for most of over two years. The passages where she casually mentions ‘lovemaking’ (how 70s!) in their tiny tent are utterly disarming. In another writer’s hands, they’d be corny, but not Barb’s. The magic of this book is how, in her telling, the Savages come across not so much as cyclists or adventurers but as genuine human beings—adventurous, vulnerable, yet resilient—who happen to be riding bicycles.
From the swampy Everglades to the snowy Himalayas, Barbara’s love of travel shines through. If you enjoy pedal-to-the-metal adventure, you’ll find it here.
I cried until I laughed, and laughed until I cried at Barbara Savage’s gorgeously written story of her cycling tour with her husband, Larry. Miles from Nowhere is the best of the best, a grand exploration of the world and its people by two wildly adventurous hearts in love with each other and life itself.
A valuable reissue, reminding us all about the joys (and sometimes sorrows) of seeing the world by bike.
I read Miles from Nowhere by Barbara Savage in 2010 while on my own bike tour across America, which I think says at least something about how good it is—that I still felt like reading about biking even after I’d ridden a couple thousand miles. It’s another book that’s great because of both the writing and the scale of the adventure it captures.
A long, long time ago, I read this book and went straight out and bought myself a $250 Specialized bicycle and started my first bicycle tour. Changed my life. I came home and wrote a book about the experience and gave credit where credit was due: Barbara and Larry Savage inspired me, giving me the courage for that first step. A lifetime has now passed, but Barbara’s words are still fresh to me, as stirring, thrilling, and humorous as the first time I read them. Many things may have changed since their round-the-world journey, but our human hopes and fears haven’t. We are all so much richer for preserving the gift Barbara left us, Miles from Nowhere.
Told with grit and good humor, this charming travelogue is a testament to why it's worth hitting the road—whether on a bicycle, or through the pages of a book.
Inspiring—a masterpiece of bike-travel literature!
If there’s a timeless intimacy to be found in long-term bike touring, then it’s multiplied by Barbara Savage’s words. She takes us along on her two-year adventure and instantly we are her trusted companions. As we ride with Barbara, she doesn’t waste time romanticizing the landscape or looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. Instead, she gifts us the privilege of her honesty. And with that, we lucky readers gain a window into the struggle, triumphs, and laugh-out-loud moments of human-powered travel in unexpected places. It’s no surprise that Miles From Nowhere has lived on these past 30-plus years and inspired others to take to the road on two wheels. In these pages, Barbara lives on, too. I’m left with the unshaken belief that there’s real, unfiltered life to be found out there, and, perhaps most importantly, true kindness.
02/07/2020
Originally published in 1985, this book has stood the test of time and is considered a classic of biking literature. It takes an author like Savage to captivate readers in a way that makes them feel as if they are pedaling right along with her and husband Larry Savage. The couple spent two years biking through 25 European, African, and Asian countries, traveling over 23,000 miles, graduating from novice riders to hardened road warriors. Ironically, the conditions today in many of the countries they biked through in the late 1970s either have not improved or have remained the same. Readers should know that the author was tragically hit and killed by a car soon after concluding this grand adventure while training on her bike for a triathlon just before the original work was published. While this edition offers a new foreword and an interview with widower Larry, the advanced copy did not contain the maps or pictures of the first book. VERDICT A must-have for all libraries without a copy of the original, especially those with active biking communities seeking entertaining adventure stories. Savage also provides practical touring advice relevant to any bike traveler.—John N. Jax, Univ. of Wisconsin Lib., La Crosse
