One of the books I’m reading is Dervla Murphy’s Full Tilt: Dunkirk to Delhi on a Bicycle. It was first published in 1965 and is an account of her journey in 1963. I’m finding it slow reading because I’m constantly wondering about the places she describes, how they’ve changed since the early 1960s and looking them up.
Her journey took her through Europe, Persia (Iran), Afghanistan, over the Himalayas to Pakistan and into India. She travelled on her own, with a revolver in her saddle bag. It’s amazing.
It begins with her desire to cycle to India:
On my tenth birthday a bicycle and an atlas coincided as presents and a few days later I decided to cycle to India. I’ve never forgotten the exact spot on a hill near my home at Lismore, County Waterford, where the decision was made and it seemed to me then, as it still seems to me now, a logical decision, based on the discoveries that cycling was a most satisfactory method of transport and that (excluding the USSR for political reasons) the way to India offered few watery obstacles than any other destination at a similar distance. (page 1)
And that is what she did 21 years later.
So far I have travelled with her to Afghanistan, where she is on her way to Kabul via Khandahar. Needless to say I’m struck with thoughts about how much has changed in the world since then. I’m full of questions, not just about the current situation with all the places she describes, but also about how she managed it, how she found out where to stay, and how she communicated with people for example.
It’s very much a personal account, not so much about the actual cycling, although I was amused by her account of getting her cycle repaired in a Persian cycle shop where they would not use a screwdriver but hammered every screw into place. Not so funny, because a few days later the back wheel came off, as the relevant screw had been ruined!
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader.
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I read her book about travelling through Ethiopia and enjoyed it, I think she walked though, rather than cycling. If you like cycling books I can heartily recommend Anne Mustoe’s books about cycling around the world. I don’t know why but the travel books I read more often than not seem to involve someone either on a bicycle or canoeing up a river!
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I hadn’t read much in the way of travel books at all but after reading Leigh Fermor I’m looking for variations on the theme. I’m going to be looking for this one, thanks.
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Thanks Katrina – you replied exactly as I would have!
By the by wasn’t the Patrick Leigh Fermor stuff simply wonderful?
A popular one at work at the moment is the Slow Walk Across Spain.
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I enjoy books that take me to places I’ve never been and show me a world I haven’t experienced. Thanks for sharing this book, Margaret.
Here’s MY FRIDAY MEMES POST
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I haven’t read any travel books as of yet, but this definitely sounds very good! I’d love to travel the world, but don’t think I’ll ever have the means to go to all the places I wish I could see! Hop on over if you have the time:
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Juli @ Universe in Words
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I love to read accounts of personal journeys, especially to places I’m not likely to go. I’d be like you, however, constantly stopping to look up places on a map or read more about them.
My post features FLIGHT BEHAVIOR.
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This sounds very interesting. I don’t read much non-fiction. The author was certainly much braver and ambitious that I have ever been.
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Margaret – What an interesting-sounding book! Truly an example of the adventure of a lifetime. I wonder too though about how much has changed in the decades since her trip. It does sound fascinating and enjoyable though.
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I love books like this. It’s the personal challenges of traveling by foot or bike or canoe that gets me dreaming of great adventures like I did when I was young. It’s only recently that I’ve given up my dream of hiking the Appalachian Trail in the eastern U.S. The books of William Least Heat Moon are wonderful of his travels through the U.S.
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