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Celebrating her 60th birthday with a journey to Everest Base Camp, Catherine DeVrye takes in the extraordinary Himalayan landscape beneath Mount Everest. Image courtesy Catherine DeVrye.
Book review: ‘Beyond Timbuktu: Journeys of Hope and Humanity’ by Catherine DeVrye
Published by Hardie Grant Custom. Review by Emily Clarke.
Catherine DeVrye has travelled through more than 150 countries, collecting the sort of stories that rarely find their way into destination guides. In Beyond Timbuktu: Journeys of Hope and Humanity, she shares those experiences through an A–Z of countries, encounters and memories, with humour and a particular affection for the people she has met along the way.
What emerges from DeVrye’s writing is a curiosity that extends well beyond the places she visits. She is just as interested in the diverse array of people she meets, the circumstances that shape their lives and the ways in which their experiences challenge and broaden her own perspective. In Angola, a local guide named Yvonne offers insights into everyday life while navigating Luanda’s traffic. In Argentina, during the country’s economic crisis, she finds herself waiting for the next flight out “alone, broke and hungry” before a stranger hands her half a loaf of bread. In Andorra, an unexpected encounter on a mountain path ends in a new friendship.
There is something particularly intimate about her willingness to place herself within these stories, acknowledging her uncertainties, vulnerabilities and evolving understanding of people and places. Her philosophy seems less concerned with how far she has travelled than with what she has learnt along the way, including about herself. This gives the book a distinctive dimension, revealing not only the character of a destination but also something of her own place within it.
The way DeVrye introduces each destination is immediately engaging, with Angola, for example, beginning with the amusement of telling people where she is going and watching their puzzled reactions. Armenia opens with an admission that she cannot quite explain its appeal. In Hungary, a woman at a tourist office cannot understand why anyone would choose to cycle from Vienna to Budapest. These are small moments, but they give the book its immediacy, authenticity and personality. Rather than offering an inventory of attractions, we are invited into the circumstances of her visits, allowing conversations, mishaps and unexpected friendships to shape the narrative.
The extraordinary colours of Ditwah Lagoon on Yemen’s Socotra island, where turquoise water meets sweeping white sandbanks. Image courtesy Catherine DeVrye.
Her travels have taken her from Antarctica to Yemen, through familiar destinations and countries that receive considerably less attention in mainstream travel publishing. Some are explored over several pages while others appear as brief recollections. The arrangement makes the book particularly enjoyable to browse. Readers can follow the alphabetical sequence or open it at almost any country and find a self-contained story.
Left: A camel driver near Timbuktu, in the West African country of Mali; and a warm welcome in Shiraz, Iran. Images courtesy Catherine DeVrye.
Not every experience is comfortable or enjoyable. DeVrye writes about illness, difficult journeys, misunderstandings and the occasional disappointment with the same candour she brings to her happier memories. Her account of returning to Antarctica more than two decades after an extraordinary first visit is particularly revealing. The second journey is pleasant, but the emotional connection is different. Some experiences, she suggests, belong as much to a particular moment in life as to the destination itself.
There is a deeper history running through these travels. Born in a Canadian orphanage and later raised by adoptive parents, DeVrye arrived in Australia in 1973 following the deaths of her parents, carrying grief and uncertainty about her future. What began as a three-month working holiday became a new life spanning more than five decades – a background that gives added meaning to the relationships she describes. The book is not simply a record of extensive travel. It also reveals how unfamiliar cultures, changing circumstances and the generosity of strangers have influenced her outlook.
Left: Catherine celebrates another adventure among the sandstone formations and sweeping desert landscapes of Wadi Rum, Jordan; and a winding sandy track crosses the dry landscape near Timbuktu, where people travel on foot carrying bundles through the scattered trees. Images courtesy Catherine DeVrye.
DeVrye makes no claim to have understood every country she has visited. Indeed, she acknowledges the limitations of brief encounters and the difficulty of capturing places where she has spent considerably longer. Her reflections can be charming, playful, disarming and occasionally confronting.
DeVrye is also an accomplished photographer, and the many photographs throughout the book contribute far more than colour and movement. They offer another perspective on the destinations she visits, capturing landscapes, people and everyday moments with the same curiosity and attention to detail that characterise her writing. Beautifully integrated into the book’s design, the images offer an intimate and authentic glimpse of the places she has experienced.
Catherine takes in Iceland’s rugged volcanic landscape, with a waterfall cutting through the moss-covered gorge and distant glaciers. Image courtesy Catherine DeVrye.
The book’s generous geographical scope and accessible arrangement make it easy to return to, whether following a particular destination or simply enjoying another episode from DeVrye’s travels. Underlying the collection is her belief that human kindness is more widespread than the headlines might suggest. It is a recurring theme through conversations with guides, strangers, fellow travellers and people whose lives are very different from her own.
Beyond Timbuktu is an invitation to become acquainted with those people and places through the eyes of someone who has spent much of her life travelling among them. Its charm lies in the personal details: the conversations remembered, the assumptions reconsidered and the encounters that remain long after the journey has ended.
