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Original Title:	Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
ISBN:	0792274571 (ISBN13: 9780792274575)
Edition Language:	English

Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu

Kira Salak

Hardcover | Pages: 320 pages

Rating: 3.93 | 616 Users | 73 Reviews

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After 37 years of never reading about Mali, I have managed two books about that country in the last month. The previous book (The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts) gave more information about the history of the region, and informed my reading of this book as well. This edition appears to be a 2016 reprint of the original book published in 2004 by National Geographic.

Last year, I read another book by Kira Salak about her solo journey across Papua New Guinea (Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea, so I already knew about the author's fearlessness, her unrelenting pace, and her preference of traveling alone. Actually knowing these things about her made me look forward to reading her only other book-length non-fiction account of her travel. She has written multiple essays on other travel experiences for magazines like National Geographic, even winning the PEN Award for her reporting on the war in Congo.

This 2003 journey, taking Kira 600 miles on the Niger River from Old Ségou to Timbuktu, is modeled after the 18th century explorer Mungo Park. He attempted this journey twice, not surviving the second attempt, despite having over 40 travel companions. His writings (journals, letters) as well as writings about Park are laced throughout this book. Salak clearly looks to him not only to see which parts of the journey they had in common, but to find shared experiences in the emotions along the way. Kira's trip was well documented by a National Geographic photographer, and many of those photos are up on her website.

What the photos can't contain is Salak's writing, which I found engaging, especially descriptions of the landscape and its effect on her as a solo traveler.

One sample:

"Where is the river of just this morning, with its whitecaps that would have liked to drown me, with its current flowing backward against the wind? Gone to this: a river of smoothest glass, a placidity unbroken by wave or eddy, with islands of lush greenery awaiting me like distant Xanadus. The Niger is like a mercurial god, meting out punishment and benediction on a whim. And perhaps the god of the river sleeps now, returning matters to the mortals who ply its waters?"

She also chronicles how the people along the river change as she gets closer to Timbuktu. The tribes shift, the friendliness shifts, the tension shifts. At times I was a little frustrated because she was not taking the time to understand the culture and gain acceptance into it, and often left quickly due to fear. To me, fear can be a form of racism, so I'm a bit wary of that reaction. But I reminded myself that this was the Mali that housed Al Qaeda training camps and attempted to destroy the original manuscripts of centuries ago, during this same time period. And that this is a travel writer, not an ethnographer. But it really is a distinct difference - about the journey and the faces one might encounter along the way, and the occasional orange soda.

I was kindly approved for a review copy of this book by the publisher in Edelweiss. It was perfect timing for my African reading project, and I appreciate it!

Details Epithetical Books Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu

Title	:	Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu
Author	:	Kira Salak
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 320 pages
Published	:	November 1st 2004 by National Geographic Society
Categories	:	Travel. Cultural. Africa. Nonfiction. Adventure. Autobiography. Memoir. Western Africa. Mali

Rating Epithetical Books Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu

Ratings: 3.93 From 616 Users | 73 Reviews

Article Epithetical Books Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu

Another great travel adventure from Kira Salak following Mungo Park along the Niger. Surely only those who haven't read Four Corners could doubt she made this journey herself. It has left me wondering what on earth she'll do next.

Great book this. In Mali, from Bamako to Timbuktu, Kira Salak canoes solo, a physical and mental challenge following the route of Mungo Park down the Niger River.

Loved this book! This book follows Kira as she becomes the first Westerner in history to kayak solo down the Niger river from the capital Bamako to Timbuktu without dying. She gives you so much history all wrapped in the package of her adventure. I learned about North African history, especially Mali, some of the areas cultures, and the present day condition of life along the Niger. We follow her into the homes of Malians to get a close up look at life in Mali. We see cultures change from one

I actually really liked this book. I put off reading it when it came from the library, not really sure if I was in the mood for a "travel story." But I finally read the book after reading several others in a pile. And was I GLAD I did. The author really is a great writer, the story just flows and you really don't want to put it down until the end. The story itself is really quite *amazing.* I mean, 600 miles by kayak to Timbuktu???? And the journey is actually quite a lot more dangerous than I

So many thoughts went through my head as I read this book:1. I am a slug. I need to get out and experience the world2. This would be a good book for Terry. The parallels being pushing your body to its limit. The difference was that Kira went through hostile areas while paddling her 600 miles....I am not sure if PGH was hostile to you when you ran through it----I hope not.3. The poor Malian women...some are slaves, some have horrible procedures done to them. I can't imagine.4. How materialistic

I obsessed with Mali, so I thought this book might be good tour of the country down the Niger river. Instead it's another lame explorer veneration, this time Scottish explorer Mungo Park. The best travel advice I ever got, also traveling as a woman alone in a nearby area, was that a country is more than its landmarks, and that you should try to get to know as many people as you can if you really want to know what a place is like. I feel like she barely makes an effort to engage with people, nor

About 10 years ago, Kira Salak paddled on her own through the sub-Saharan nation of Mali on the Niger River, heading from a town called Old Segou to the fabled city of Timbuktu, although, truth be told, Timbuktu has been a ramshackle poverty-ridden village for nearly 400 years now, not the onetime cultural and trade center of West Africa.But this journey wasn't really about seeing the marvels of Timbuktu. It was, first, an homage to an intrepid explorer from the early 19th century named Mungo