The Cloud Garden: A True Story of Adventure, Survival, and Extreme Horticulture by Tom Hart Dyke

The Cloud Garden: A True Story of Adventure, Survival, and Extreme Horticulture Reviews

• 
  Vanessa

  This is the story of two British idiots (one a banker and adventure seeker, the other a gardener and orchid enthusiast) who decide to try to hike through the Darien Gap. Despite it being the haunt of Colombia's FARC and paramilitary groups, all embroiled in Colombia's civil war. They get captured almost immediately and held for nine months. They are lucky to be alive, and their story is sometimes funny, but mostly boring. Neither one is a very good writer and not much actually happened. Being held by armed guerillas in the jungle means the pair did a lot of walking and sitting. The two also didn't seem to really learn anything, or they didn't share what they learned. So, it's not a very good "true-adventure" tale and you won't learn anything, especially not about orchids since all the gardener does is list species names when he does find some. The main thing I took away from this book is that if guidebooks and every person you meet or converse with tells you NOT to do something because it is insanely dangerous, you should listen to them.
• 
  Carol

  My husband and I visited Panama a few summers ago. We went through the 3 sets of locks on a small Catamaran. The crew of the ship told me about another tour they host that visits Colombia. They piqued my interest in this little visited country by dangling beautiful birds, virgin forests, lots of nature and far from the crowds lodging under my adventuresome nose. This lead me to read The Cloud Garden: A True Story of Adventure, Survival, and Extreme Horticulture, hoping for a picture of what the area of Colombia known as Darien is like. Unlike the writers of this book, I had no intention of trying to machete my way through The Gap, but to be lead by experienced guides to a nice, safe retreat After reading The Cloud Garden and being privy to Tom and Paul's ambush and kidnapping and hearing some of the continuing political turmoil, I think my adventure to Darien and Colombia is on hold.
  
  Two young, read this as somewhat foolhardy, Brits who somehow come together decide that crossing The Darien Gap on foot would be challenging yet fun. This stretch of dense jungle, inhabited by guerillas and drug runners, had only been successfully navigated by 2 Americans when Tom and Paul made their plan. They met with skepticism and outright warnings by officials and backpackers alike as they told of their plan to hike through to Colombia. At least Tom can be forgiven his craziness as he dreams of finding new species of orchids that may only exist in this jungle maze. Paul seems just to want to do it as few have.
  
  As I read Paul's preparations I was fascinated by the things he felt he needed for jungle travel. A machete, five dollar cooking pot, straw mat, iodine, matches,and a lucky dollar watch previously purchased on the Mexican border comprised most of his pack. He also stashed a small amount of dried food for emergencies. Travel light and travel cheap seemed to be the creed. I am always interested in what goes in the pack on adventures such as these. This interest dates back to when I read Bill Bryson's Walk in the Woods and laughed at the Little Debbie's in Katz's pack. At some point these had to go. So Tom and Paul pack . The two get underway and had almost reached their goal when the ambush came; swift, brutal, and with guns aimed at their heads. They truly did not know whether they would live or die. Thus began a nine-month ordeal as they are held hostage, not certain by whom, not knowing if a ransom has been demanded, or when, if ever, they might be let go. They are moved from place to place, their guards changing as frequently as their location. Yet, they never seem to really be treated badly and if you can believe it, there are some humorous parts to the story too. Tom and Paul come up with some interesting and funny names for their captors. They manage to craft a deck of cards, a chess set, draughts, play 20 questions, and sing. The food, though not great, does sustain them. Like most jungle stories, there are insects you'd rather not know about, muddy water you don't want to drink or bathe in and of course, rain and heat. I'm not giving anything away by saying they survive, as you know they do because they wrote the book. How they did is the essence of the story and though it is a great adventure and though I love this kind of story, I have no desire to duplicate it myself.
  
  If I hadn't read it with my very own eyes, and hadn't done some research about the two, I might have wondered if the tale were true; it was that amazing of a story. I couldn't put it down.
  
  
• 
  Richard McColl

  A tremendous account of survival in the jungles of Colombia, kidnapped by a splinter group of the FARC? guerrillas. I managed to interview Tom Hart Dyke in 2014 for my radio show "Colombia Calling" and rereading this account was fascinating to see how he would do things differently today with the benefit of hindsight.
• 
  Kevin

  This was a must read for me as I almost made the journey myself in 1992, but was turned off by the warnings I had heard from other travelers. When traveling rough in Latin America you hear about various no-go zones and the experiences folks have had there. At some point you tune out to all the warnings and start taking chances. This is an epic tale of what happens when you push your luck too far.
• 
  Mic

  I know that people blame victims in order to distance themselves from the trauma and feel a modicum of control in preventing horrible and uncontrollable tragedies from happening to themselves.
  
  HOWEVER
  
  Everyone said, "Don't go there you'll get kidnapped and killed." They went there anyway. They got kidnapped and held for 9 months, but not killed. Lucky bastards. Fucking retarded lucky bastards who lived through an incredibly dangerous circumstance they brought upon themselves because they come from a privileged environment in which life presents no danger and peril has no meaning, so they need to go looking for it on order to get thrills in their lives. Then they wrote a boring book about it.
  Hm.
• 
  Mihaela Sorlea Tentis

  "People warned them", "it's to dangerous" and so on- yes I get it, but when you have passions, the dangers seem small and unreal. This is a true story, a horrible one but one that ended up well. This story ended up with the beautiful gardens as Lullingstone!
• 
  Dani

  From being strangers to getting kidnapped in the Darien Gap, these two guys go through hell and back. Makes me not want to travel outside tourist areas!! A great read
• 
  Rosie

  This was a brilliant story, and very well-told. The two travellers are so honest about their experiences, and they were so brave. It is a great read.
• 
  Dana Stabenow

  A couple of twenty-something Brits go walkabout in Darien on the border between Panama and Columbia and get kidnapped by guerrillas for ransom. It takes them nine months to convince their captors they don't have any money, and in the meantime Paul the adventurer's foot almost falls off and Tom the orchid nut builds a garden.
  
  Told in the form of alternating first person narratives, their story is realistic and straightforward, honest storytelling with no pretensions to literature. Other than being dumb enough to travel there in the first place in the face of everyone telling them not to, the guys are smart enough to stay alive in spite of the lethal environment and homicidal guerrillas. They're good company, too, for each other and for the reader.
  
  I much preferred reading this story than living through it, but it is a true adventure story, with all the danger and discomfort that adventure implies. That last worm about did me in.
• 
  Janet Roberts

  This is British eccentricity at it's best! Tom Hart Dyke is a minor aristocrat, and delightfully nutty! Whilst touring Mexico he hears about the Darien Gap, and with a chap he's only just met (Paul Winder) they decide it would be a fun place to visit, despite 'Lonely Planet Guide' saying quite clearly 'Don't even think about it!"
  Tom finds rare orchids and is as happy as a lark, for six days, when they get captured by guerrillas who hold them captive for nine months.
  I thought this a simply marvellous book - in parts laugh out loud funny, and at others very tense and exciting.
• 
  Simon Wheeler

  Not exactly a touristic recommendation for the Darien Gap in Central America, but an incredible, true story of survival in the rain forest, where the physical challenges are often equalled by the mental suffering - fear, stress, sometimes boredom and even loneliness.
  And all the while, surrounded by the jewels in Nature's crown, rare and exotic orchids. Makes you want to go there, if it wasn't so dangerous.
  The author is hardly an action man, but rather, a mad English gardener. At times funny how he deals with the difficult situation he has gotten into.
• 
  Jeni Slattery

  My love for this book cannot be overstated. An incredible tale told with humour and infectious enthusiasm. I might be slightly in love with Tom Hart Dyke now also.
  
  I mean, they're a pair of fools, but I like orchids and this is exactly what my mother would probably do.
• 
  Mark Oppenlander

  I found this book on an older "to-read" list of mine and decided that it might be a fun adventure to read about after a year of stay-at-home confinement and social distancing. I picked up a used copy from an online source, and dug in.
  
  I've been fascinated with folks who travel long distances via unusual means (e.g. bicycling across Siberia, walking across North America, or taking a motorcycle from Europe to Africa) for years. At some point in reading stories of extreme travel, I became aware of the Darien Gap, the one place where motor vehicles can't move between North America and South America. This small patch of jungle breaks the continuity of the Pan-American Highway and spills over the border separating Panama and Colombia. Purported to be the hideout for drug lords, other fugitives, and members of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC guerillas), the Darien comes replete with a variety of horror stories and legends. People who enter the Darien Gap do not return.
  
  Nonetheless, in the year 2000, two young men from England ignored all of the tour book advice and decided to try to cross the Darien on foot. One was Tom Hart Dyke, a young botanist, in search of rare orchids; he knew there were likely to be unique specimens in the Darien. He connects with Paul Winder, another adventurous traveler and thrill-seeker. Together they gather some limited intel, and set off south from Panama into the Darien.
  
  It's not too much of a spoiler to tell you that the two are captured by FARC guerillas and endure nine months of captivity (the back cover of the book says as much). What may be a spoiler is to tell you that it's not a terribly interesting story. Despite the use of alternating first person accounts, the tale quickly becomes tedious and repetitious. Much of the book recounts various physical ailments the two had in a jungle (some quite disgusting), their angst over the possibilities of either death or escape, and their ongoing boredom in captivity.
  
  Part of this may be the result of the huge and insurmountable culture gap between the two Brits and the guerillas. Only Hart Dyke speaks (some) Spanish, and thus the conversations remain limited between the Colombians and the Englishmen, especially when Winder takes over the narration. It also doesn't help that the two travelers give all of the soldiers silly nicknames such as Space Cadet, The Knight, Goofy, Loose Teen, and the Nutter. I had hoped that the book might give some insight into the nature of guerilla life, or perhaps the political motivations of the group. I thought that the authors might offer a humanizing portrait of these shadowy figures. Instead, the revolutionaries come across far too often as caricatures, and not kindly ones at that.
  
  Winder and Hart Dyke at least have the good sense to admit that they were idiots to attempt the Darien traverse. When they finally make their way back to civilization, they are grateful beyond measure. Nonetheless, I wasn't sure how much they had grown or matured as people. Nor was I at all sure I would find them likable if I met them in real life.
  
  Without significant personal growth, or any new and interesting cultural information, the book doesn't work well as adventure story, travelogue, or philosophical treatise. Although not terrible, it's not good either, and the final result of reading this account was a hearty "ho hum." Not the adventure I was hoping to experience.
• 
  Janet

  I read this book to continue my education on Panamá in preparation for my expat life there, which is set to begin in early 2021.
  
  Actually, very little of the story is about Panama—it's just the starting point of the authors' journey into the dangerous section of jungle between Panama and Colombia known as the Darien Gap. With the exception of the authors, the characters are Colombian and the majority of the book is set on the Colombian side of the jungle.
  
  If Tom and Paul weren't so likable, it would have been challenging to get past their horrible judgement. They ignored multiple warnings, including from members of the Panamanian military who steer clear from the area. Shortly after getting started, they're kidnapped by Colombian guerillas. The book tells the story of their time spent wandering the jungle with their kidnappers and eventual return home.
  
  Ironically, it's their excellent judgment—and likable personalities—that saved their lives and kept the story interesting. Despite it not being about Panama, I now have a pretty good vision of the Darien Gap and lots of good reasons not to go there!
• 
  Linda

  This harrowing account of two young British adventurers is a page-turner. Written in first person accounts by the two young men who set out on a trip on the Pan American highway through the Darien Gap which on all maps say DO NOT ENTER. They went anyway. Their philosophy was "What can go wrong?" Orchid lovers will relish the enthusiasm of Dyke as he collects and raves over his botanical findings in the jungle. Paul Winder co-author of this book was just looking for an adventure. The two meet in Mexico and plan this ill-conceived trip where they are captured by terrorists and held in unspeakably ghastly conditions at times. Their resilience and ability to set up housekeeping under the worst of circumstances is astonishing. Their concern about their families testifies to their youth and their basic sweetness. A wonderful book.
• 
  Nate Hendrix

  Two crazy Englishmen attempt to hike through the Darien Gap and are taken hostage by FARC rebels. I had a book geek moment when one of the authors mentions Ice Cold in Alex, I book written in the 1950's, that I have read. It is also a movie that I have not watched yet. The experience of these prisoners is not as harrowing as Terry Anderson's in Den of Lions or Terry Waite's in Taken on Trust. Both of these are excellent book and a much different hostage experience. The two Terryes (Terrys?) suffered much more and were in captivity for much longer. Tom and Paul, in contrast, seem to have been held by a South American version of the Apple Dumpling Gang. It is not my intention to minimize Tom and Paul's experience, just give prospective reader an idea of the lightness of this book versus other hostage experience books.
• 
  Melia

  As a Millennial/Gen Z cusp feminist, I am highly skeptical of white men with unlimited money/time going on risky adventures and expecting everyone to be entertained by their accounts.
  
  I am giving this book a 4-star rating because it did what I wanted it to do. I traveled to Panama in January of 2018 and was awed by the existence and wilderness of the Darien Gap. After I left Gran Colombia, all I wanted to do was be transported back into the jungle. If anything, this book did that for me.
  
  Consequently, I also learned about the innerworkings of the paramilitaries and other happenings of the Gap.
  
  I can't say I am 100% convinced that Tom and Paul's account is real.
• 
  Reece Willis

  I thoroughly enjoyed The Cloud Garden, in particular the alternate perspectives of Tom and Paul on the reality of the harrowing months they were held captive in the Darién. Their depiction of events was at times hilarious and often terrifying, keeping you on the edge of your seat and rooting for the pair all the way. It was also great to learn about Tom's passion for horticulture and connection to Lullingstone Castle where I visited as a boy on a school trip. I'll be sure to visit the gardens there again soon.
• 
  Barry Ryan

  Fantastic story of two complete morons. The story keeps you trapped in this book, but the writing/book itself is... difficult. On three occasions I encountered pages in the WRONG PLACE... I need to stick to ebooks..
• 
  Candice Walsh

  Omg this book. I wanted to shake the two of them, constantly. Even the coke-snortin' young Americans in Panama had better sense than to go wandering around the Darien Gap. I couldn't get past the sexism throughout this book either. The Bitch? Loosey? Really?
• 
  Aztanna

  Amazing book, 10/10