Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
Ebook257 pages4 hours

The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

()

Read preview

About this ebook

A young adventurer with a history of seeking impossible challenges, Kira Salak became the first person in the world to kayak alone the six hundred miles on the Niger River to Timbuktu—“the golden city of the Middle Ages” and fabled “doorway to the end of the world.”

While Salak ventures into one of the most desolate regions in Africa, looming as a reminder of the danger she faces is the fate of great Scottish explorer Mungo Park, killed on the same route in 1797. Enduring tropical storms, hippos, rapids, the unrelenting heat of the Sahara, and the mercurial moods of the river, Salak learns that little has changed since Park’s time. When she comes ashore each night to find food and shelter among locals in mud-hut villages, tribes alternatively revere and revile her, and Salak, in turn, is equally fascinated and infuriated by the traditions she encounters. Surviving dysentery and rapacious pursuers, Salak arrives at her destination weak but triumphant, and achieves her ultimate goal of buying the freedom of two Bella slave women.

Unputdownable and breathtakingly suspenseful, The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu is a beautifully rendered meditation on courage and self-mastery by an audacious and inspiring young traveler and wordsmith.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 2, 2015
ISBN9781632060679
The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
Author

Kira Salak

Kira Salak has won the PEN award for journalism and appeared five times in Best American Travel Writing. She is a contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure magazine and was the first woman to traverse Papua New Guinea; her nonfiction account of that trip, Four Corners, was a New York Times Notable Travel Book of 2001. Her fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices and other publications. The White Mary is her first novel. She lives in Montana.

Read more from Kira Salak

Related to The Cruelest Journey

Related ebooks

Special Interest Travel For You

View More

Related articles

Related categories

Reviews for The Cruelest Journey

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings

0 ratings0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    The Cruelest Journey - Kira Salak

    NOLbbook_preview_excerpt.html}|ےƑ@zeؔZ6ۚM҈Lݚ^=F .L>m`_L}ɞs"@vUe =<yy!/5ewmm`~G UKޥ>,OSe՟0՛Vo&]C_0j䠗ͳOmW8s:ynP[a>uU\Mqcl}z0`cWn%ȏq)iϟOz;"O.#yWn#/gui\>Mֿ޼Ʀ%B׼tU&<p 0Ks$/2t0<-^g Ή<*Ÿ<Żp}N3,!}hLC t c]xݫfd/ݫvp Tʧjn'?!fvi) ak&^MOscTx:&^ꊧ* vڍDm&P!8/-ΓO`=W~/LP%Ox,T)M ]uo'k iާa&ͷ55d0AX1Vv,ykdPq8ij2_/ٗa0OROi#!440ӌu)aNP4 ]uaj0*>KܘMC,c)1mByc8W8 ###MUw؉-6ŜC[lf Y~`0<]yX?hٶ_=,`Ґ)nʼnU7OY[0 \&cr =.!T*&-N6XXCXqz(:ӊ nk {h`\(@2>B;hQ 6SJcVtηgE߬W=Z(/4K32J~Rk뗵ۑS!:,}XODL0}0V'1 S‚X8`!.lG3QE10'eY:ۑș$1o4˅NP.Gp| ^.4H!i2I[koZJͣۢYm~:91> D#"< Gz@lK3oө31M4Z ΄(oSp][bW :`a07'-K@[Ҽ}.QΆmA \Y}jnLmxKN $̸dx# ntG  4`􏈳ZR=}ߡP2G0Co=/ LEF .TQ~v$|@L̅" < z}-Gj9P3(0? R $nD!\ád>Ўho8oq"OwS)\&{eXc&̓` #X#RS!9 SVƌ:2Mrvo#B^ym~J4cH \RZ21DSHG%;؃i\D$p]o9A 8,!o4Eqrd#F8h%Wa8+\ HWkiQ&-\x@P;fʽf7(@89ѱo+`yKj;o-\1ډNRTE{L6H‡/ JL3L'wdnxiE+i?w  E\ K{d!P]5{egf 8T_&/c.@jIk_L^l' ]6ߚ4HZetP2 L: AE385%"K z.5teVgnwt~P6zEw>3<*n'7TŚoׅWzɩL(՗"]Wqi B9ZnE% Ec'1F˚<-9Vk-Ddtⱥ -D9CWO>c˙E"~֑z,=a~H@6o -촣n%~ G0ҽ@CB(OK ndC؆v{la,+!1U79+p"y2 ˇat%Y:UnfA+`^B$WF=G@ӎCz{sII٦+X" e5P_|Dgzӥ}T 6<'V=pa/Z"L*&b谦&)锌v!b .v(YK]y݅ sg\وa@= ]7 q.% ܱ>hh< ժ[&TTHҤlE6u L`V\Tc9:rV3514n!<\o뭞k>N݄Q=,M~e3ŋ P$Zܵ [~rhJO$@`d*0c,@sBFe7CJRk}sNl|z,1 p"͇P/  *Y΃ztticÑ4@}=v(j#%$ ˄N4"W()ub,S9兰uHB cU,UW6٫K$m&V9IYhΣj$Y: 1܉ 6D]ۀ6&f=Ndb&Vl ft9uQ(FՂǨp8&{%ߝsW5~纼`;P6;wDLD:S4M8Ob"UNuZru+*29 +n)ݒ%@y8goYdo^ݐBV^u,)q3U^i>oikL قuzP{!cGd_N^f,[Uˠ&):T(9SNr{j,jwB=봇[GW!9Ds_gl!T8us^ݗ!˓ [ .1l.V4\I50~7PI̒1XC}{ʳakZ:(XUP1ixLG&Pb9t;K7*[Fb!W7}]|c0Ě L#0ҿZON['uɿ) cgUx/eti eAW$p?lE4$w ELi@EKC%9}ލ4]U$NKBHʓj(-+g Om-_\v_V␢*۬ GUYVuY>5}VRr^{irTmz ԑ;xL)ۋ[kz,7jYh2P.rDAdX܀ _YN[;wl @\Vz?P]laɁlOsMr,4'y_\  f] 1-N :ɕzE)lMSr4]Z::z_y BpқnT"4`G 猓Af\d}Yj X?EUjȵ-f)4D͖XϢ3{-gZB7/^V?dmEǩ-ĨJTf6Nuˮe ;M*MZ$l׏D{ѧqb@a`G0@  O8kg>amԐ^&լڢcy!Z [3dVJVأXu5 8la1'BdR>y 90QꦒǛK!H,1?!g VVhucU)WZg?N$24wv^vm1aaR<`@+tOx|}x4K8[ (bn.Yujl!.+թ™! yV-BifkE!F櫡ȭCN=kF\' >3^=j AnFYhLL4U֏Q֓Waa>,1%~4ΨԂ-y[g`Ш3w ݊zso@{E$V[G%j<̈^A?1KSS4@MOk$]ĵzwY߭ ŭ3eŰ^d06bUa*vTjY D@ɮ3%BKV\֋m@6F^c̈́ lgR-NH^ѽk1z٩/Wz`i$ x< <3oks`z?oA]Jp'h23h ^}-!ଡ଼{r!XPW*:6bfGV/BwKE,rB#!Ί\Z N /{z` NV~cE6jU敜ɚ/db-t+Ip4 59z0 R7k`?-ՉξDk[>40 V,V͍R$ʊx mX6h9$Ҵe_'E:v9f"M) C΃nK=.Kǘ,l; J@%rA=hVC"a _2ΥHsD4wKӓD\By6;u$uw|kn~LPv!eUHz5QY鸆=% w7.>-[-N?HgoփtbUdvĶ뮾 aSM5I9&u7 ;_J)NuM+SWkYuc89L.IDW܋W+$ο *e~@jLIcű/X0=Irp'ө+զG~Nl|3 v. M>}/zUκxA7=ߙ`6qa'`k2)y=-v7uO(X5uwcqHHqW^08ny X!NVefqOmV` f^/YW- zOʂm;,ed%c?Ɩ^(zҼQV͇ 7 o<.1;̉Y({Uss$ i_̽@,tTDqAs,tam{@?3Wv q>q?&~'Y0?]4څPOs_Ht #~nT`_1B[וySE0$JMP=dB4 ~0_[ .S>6ٚA[iu༿zgL w/BΟ- eY*.x9vYBvcDC>U- jo(7[wS@'7*Y`NI[?leY-+3-= U,v"lMTXR3nR1]y39eRxELMkA3D82z&Eo+xW!ޏOżQVǑB$;Y=Petz]@W'ך|Ěa^[kj]R^UK0@?Pč0Sua]␙x֡?mlZ@5sE]EogchE- ~9$-6Nʼ7zwGd"$@^dQ{Ynm}E]n_R2O[u,8St\E6,kʑET}S[ lm 3wYڴZ[1*Ec,{OciV/*ׅ\:LGՀXJ<* [SvԦ pN4V' .w0kQ(ZB-ˮ/щgĸ!|if0^+Vkʧ6>`ڢ|Q]nH0fklUa"8z(~J}գ,U 9 'Km?n[eݥWw=i{{ވl'XVUJCr[1^/ޒm0uqc4#d>4&y LҌp3`w#$~ofĞAZŮMPdK V=NM`բV%q\Ts˪;X*umnI_w~[eU;3Fe?_uo@<@EFSdU]omRBmͺQz+XgR}}jAq[-1wV+1Q hǓ=iE]zwPYtMpl!5 5 XS81%=JKvXQUw^HY)GF|qjBhe!7XDњ\[|u̖ m4^};5fE<Q9ۜR
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1