Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
by Kira Salak
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kira SalakEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-11-01
ISBN: 0792274571
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: National Geographic
Book Reviews of Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
Book Review: An amazing personal journey and detailed descriptions of Mali
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is really two stories - the story of the country of Mali along the Niger River as seen by Salak as she retraces the route of Mungo Park (the first Western Explorer to explore the interior of Mali and to reach Timbuktu), and the personal journey of the author, Kira Salak.
The incredible descriptions of life on the Niger River brought me along with Salak on her grueling journey and allowed me to experience scenes that few Westerners have ever seen. Salak's descriptions of the culture, beliefs and lifestyles of the tribes living in Mali along the Niger River were informative and educational. Her story of slavery in Timbuktu is one of the most detailed I have seen. If you want an accurate view of life in Africa, this is a must read book.
The second story, the personal journey of the author, was one of the most inspiring I have read. As you journey with Salak you will find yourself joining her as she overcomes extreme obstacles such as ignoring the pain of a sprained wrist as she kayaked, dealing with Muslim extremists and occasionally escaping from them, finding food and a safe place to rest each night, kayaking through storms, etc. How often in life do we find small obstacles stopping us? Salak teaches us that we have the power to overcome even the most difficult obstacles in life.
Of course, if you love kayaking, this is a book that will inspire you from the first stroke of her paddle to the very last stroke.
What makes this book really great is Salak's writing style that draws you in, pulls you along and puts you right there in the kayak with her. A great work of non-fiction that I highly recommend for anyone who wants a good book to read.
Summary of Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
Kira Salak is a young woman with a history of seeking impossible challenges. She grew up relishing the exploits of the great Scottish explorer Mungo Park and set herself the daunting goal of retracing his fatal journey down West Africa's Niger river for 600 miles to Timbuktu. In so doing she became the first person to travel alone from Mali's Old Segou to "the golden city of the Middle Ages," and, legend has it, the doorway to the end of the world. In the face of the hardships she knew were to come, it is amazing that she could have been so sanguine about her journey's beginning: "I have the peace and silence of the wide river, the sun on me, a breeze licking my toes, the current as negligible as a faint breath. Timbuktu seems distant and unimaginable." Enduring tropical storms, hippos, rapids, the unrelenting heat of the Sahara desert and the mercurial moods of this notorious river, she traveled solo through one of the most desolate regions in Africa where little had changed since Mungo Park was taken captive by Moors in 1797. Dependent on locals for food and shelter, each night she came ashore to stay in remote mud-hut villages on the banks of the Niger, meeting Dogan sorceresses and tribes who alternately revered and reviled her- so remarkable was the sight of an unaccompanied white woman paddling all the way to Timbuktu. Indeed, on one harrowing stretch she barely escaped harm from men who chased her in wooden canoes, but she finally arrived, weak with dysentery, but triumphant, at her destination. There, she fulfilled her ultimate goal by buying the freedom of two Bella slaves with gold. This unputdownable story is also a meditation on self-mastery by a young adventuress withoutequal, whose writing is as thrilling as her life.Niger Books
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