Early travel writing? Free to engage in surreal tripping (5,5)
I believe the answer is:
rural rides
'early travel writing?' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'free to engage in surreal tripping' is the wordplay.
'free' becomes 'rid' (to be free of something is to be rid of it).
'to engage in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tripping' indicates anagramming the letters.
'surreal' with letters rearranged gives 'rurales'.
'rid' placed within 'rurales' is 'RURAL RIDES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rural rides that I've seen before include "travel book" , "Cobbett book" , "Essays" .)