A TRAVEL enthusiast from Bude is set to publish her second book this month using information from detailed diaries she kept over the last 40 years of trips abroad.

The first of Rosemary Lee’s books, ‘Traveler’s Tales — Book One: Innocent Youth to Sober Maturity’, was published just before Christmas last year, and the second in the series, ‘Traveller’s Tales — Book Two: Advancing Years Will Not Stop Me’, will be published on February 28.

Rosemary is heavily involved with the Bude Refugee Support Group (BRSG), having coordinated a number of monthly collections for items to be sent to Greece. However, when COVID lockdown hit she was left with time on her hands and decided to use it wisely.

She said: “For over 40 years I have been travelling to unusual destinations, and keeping detailed diaries to record my thoughts and impressions, which can transport me back into the scene, in a way which no photographs could ever do.

“Friends constantly asked if I would transform those diaries into a book, but there was never time...until the enforced leisure of the COVID lockdowns arrived! And what a delight it has been to travel again into these remote parts of the world via my memories, and to finally be able to take my readers around the world with me — almost as if we are not currently banned from travel.”

Join Rosemary and stroll amongst the steaming geyser fields of the Andes and beneath the crumbling rocks of the Karakorum. Watch the sun rise over Mount Everest, and scramble up steep steps into tiny chapels squeezed into crevices in the cliffs at Bhutan’s Eagle’s Nest. Become dazzled by the gold leaf adorning the walls of Samarkand’s Golden Mosque and gaze in awe at Sri Lanka’s 12m high Avukana Buddha, carved into a cliff.

Join an exuberant procession of worshipping Ethiopian Christians, and marvel at the skill of Mongolian eagle hunters. Watch the elegant dance of a Japanese geisha or join picnicking Iranian families to eat freshly peeled cucumber.

Swim with awe-inspiring Australian whale sharks, thrill at the sight of the Antarctic’s Wandering Albatross with its 12ft wingspan and listen to the sounds of the African night.

All this, and more from Rosemary’s exciting travels across the globe.

The second book is available (both as paperback and e-book) for pre-sale on Amazon and in Spencer Thorn bookshop in Bude.