mongol rider

Christina Dodwell is a remarkable adventurer/traveler who also happens to be a very good writer. Her adventurous lifestyle began by chance in 1975 when she and a friend on holiday in North Africa were left abandoned and on foot by their fellow travelers. Instead of making it to the nearest airport they went on a voyage of 1,000 miles on rivers in equatorial Africa in a dugout canoe.

After her African adventure, Dodwell decided to go solo through the highlands, jungles and along the Sepik River of Papua New Guinea. Part of her journey (only 1,000 miles or so!) was on horseback where she encountered Stone-Age tribes, crocodile hunters, tribal wars and swamp-forests. In Papua New Guinea is her book about this incredible trek.

Her next adventure, detailed in A Traveller in China, began in Kashgar, an ancient hub on the Silk Road in northwestern China. She canoed in Lake Karakol, followed Marco Polo’s route to Beijing, canoed the Yellow River and was one of the first westerners to witness the Dragon Boat Race on Lake Erhai.

If that hasn’t whet your appetite for armchair adventure, check your pulse and two other books authored by Dodwell: A Traveller on Horseback and Travels with Pegasus: a Microlight Journey across West Africa