Kira Salak is a young woman with a history of seeking impossible challenges. She grew up relishing the exploits of the great Scottish explorer Mung...
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Aug 02, 2011
Miss Kira Salak travelled 600 miles down the Niger in the footsteps of the legendary African explorer Mungo Park, to the fabled city of Timbuktu. What compels men or women to risk their lives on such hazardous journeys?
Miss Salak herself spends many days and hours reflecting on these things as she battled storms, unpredictable currents and occasionally hostile natives in her solitary quest. Every difficult journey is also pilgrimage, where one confronts one's innermost fears and motives. In More...
Miss Salak herself spends many days and hours reflecting on these things as she battled storms, unpredictable currents and occasionally hostile natives in her solitary quest. Every difficult journey is also pilgrimage, where one confronts one's innermost fears and motives. In More...
May 15, 2009
Sandra
rated it: 
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 world
2. 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 imagi More...
1. I am a slug. I need to get out and experience the world
2. 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 imagi More...
Aug 22, 2011
Kristin
rated it:
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 d
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Nov 18, 2008
Fred
rated it: 
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 cultu More...
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 cultu More...
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Aug 05, 2008
Lauren
rated it:
Following in the footsteps of Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who traversed the land and the river in the eighteenth century, Salak sets out to kayak down the Niger River in the west African country of Mali. Unlike Park's ill-fated -and ultimately fatal- journey, Salak makes it to Timbuktu, the ancient "city of gold" right below the Saharan desert. Her journey was funded by the National Geographic Society, and she often runs into the hired photographer who is documenting her travels at
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Apr 28, 2009
Andrea
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Salak is a good writer and a very determined person. Overall, this was an interesting travel/adventure book. But the book's weakness is that Salak wants this to be more than what it really is, a physical challenge with some unpleasant cross-cultural encounters. She seems to want to convince both the reader and herself that this was some great experience of enlightenment, even if she can't offer any evidence that this is the case. Also, she over-emphasizes her lack of preparation or research.
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Feb 26, 2009
Jolene
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Kira Salak paddles a kayak 600 miles down the Niger River all alone. She faces storms, hunger illness and heat. She stays in villages along the way never sure if they will be friendly and kind or angry and mean, they are always greedy occasionally unexpectedly nice. Documented for National Geographic and amazing. Big change from the arctic stories I have been reading.
Nov 25, 2008
Cherie
rated it:
A- Not as fantastic as "Four Corners," this book takes us down Salak's journey down the Niger River from Old Segou to Timbuktu, something that's not been done by anyone. Through her encounters with Malians and herself, Salak learns about life and herself. My usual criticism of Salak: she doesn't show enough reason for her motivation for the journey. Still, a very good read.
Mar 10, 2010
Judy
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I think it would be hard to translate hours of paddling into an exciting book - and the book is a reflection of a journey, rather than an adventure story. This was an honest account from a determined woman. I like that she braided her story with Mungo Park's experience, it helped move things along the muddy history of this land. As a traveler myself I especially appreciated how travel means that you come to look at other cultures, but those cultures also come out to inspect you from their own va
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Aug 04, 2009
DoctorM
rated it:
Kira Salak just at the cusp of her 30s took time away from an English PhD to paddle a kayak six hundred miles along the Niger to Timbuktu, following the path of the doomed 18th-century explorer Mungo Park. "Cruelest Journey" matches Park's final expedition with Salak's intention to test herself against the river, to open herself up to the world along its banks. Physical exhaustion and isolation, cultural shock and sickness--- Salak teaches herself to face all those things. This isn't a
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Jul 27, 2008
Kate
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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, no
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Oct 24, 2007
Rachel
rated it:
My first travel adventure book. I guess when one reads these things, they discover things about themselves - as authors do on their many adventures.
If I learned anything new about myself after reading Kira Salak's book, it's that I'm a masochist. This young woman's solo adventure kayaking 600 miles up the Niger river and the scary close calls she's encountered made my life seem dull and safe. It pained me after reading this story. And yet, I read her next book after that. After that More...
If I learned anything new about myself after reading Kira Salak's book, it's that I'm a masochist. This young woman's solo adventure kayaking 600 miles up the Niger river and the scary close calls she's encountered made my life seem dull and safe. It pained me after reading this story. And yet, I read her next book after that. After that More...
Aug 21, 2010
Terry
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First hand account of a woman traveling alone (almost) down the Congo River. Not strong on descriptions of the countryside or interactions of encounters with most people.
Feb 20, 2011
Sara
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Great book about a woman's journey into Africa. I wish I had her job! She has other books about traveling to really remote locations I hope to read someday.
Aug 29, 2011
Kara & Eric
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There's good writing here and an interesting mix of the author's own journey and a historical journey up the Niger River. However, there are some troublesome parts of the story too, especially toward the end when Salak invasively questions several Malian women about their experiences with rape. Her need to play savior for the women seems to override common decency and respect. Also, her insistence on giving out money everywhere she goes betrays a lack of understanding of cultural norms. I defini
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Mar 16, 2010
Jennifer
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Salak's narrative of canoeing 600 miles on the Niger by herself made me think I'm an utter couch potato who has done nothing with her life. I was hoping for more narrative instead of introspection, but it was a fascinating read.
Apr 04, 2009
Mary
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This non-fiction by a very brave, albeit foolhardy woman who also happens to write beautifully and sensitively.
Apr 01, 2009
Marjie
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Good story and incredible journey. I wonder how the freed slaves are doing now.
Jul 30, 2011
Foolhardy in a way that you want to smack her, yet still an interesting tale.
Dec 17, 2009
Linda Margaret
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This is a real adventrue (maybe that's redundant, but I want to emphasize) book. The writer collapses the real time it must have taken her to get down the Niger to a spiritual journey of not-too-many pages. She doesn't romanticise herself or others, but she does empathise, which is nice. Should be read in conjunction with writing by Mungo Park, an earlier explorer who died making the same journey and whose journal at times provides her with inspiration and perspective.
Sep 07, 2010
Cynthia
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The book was very hard to put down. At first I was afraid this was going to be a self-obsessed "Eat, Pray, Love" sort of memoir, but Salak knows how to balance introspection with awareness of a the beautiful, but cruel world she is kayaking through.
Feb 11, 2010
Diana
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Once again, Kira Salak, you are my hero.
I was disappointed to learn how National Geographic documents explorers' adventures; it seemed like an invasion of her experience. I may be biased about this because her first book "Four Corners" through Papua New Guinea, is a favorite, although a different sort of journey.
I was disappointed to learn how National Geographic documents explorers' adventures; it seemed like an invasion of her experience. I may be biased about this because her first book "Four Corners" through Papua New Guinea, is a favorite, although a different sort of journey.
Apr 07, 2008
Wendy
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Amazing tale of a ballsy woman's solo journey up the Niger in a kayak. Salak is a gifted descriptive writer who explores her inner self as well as her physical/cultural experiences quite well.
Book should include photos as they are prominently mentioned while they're taken and part of the story.
Book should include photos as they are prominently mentioned while they're taken and part of the story.
Aug 09, 2008
Janelle
rated it:
Can't help but love a book about a woman who can SERIOUSLY kick ass. Salak is an adventurer, National Geographic person, journalist, you name it and takes on the 600 mile journey on the Nile River to Timbuktu, alone. Her experiences are chronicled in her book and it's well worth reading.
Nov 27, 2007
Angeal
rated it:
I liked this book fairly well, but it was not really in the vein of the adventurer books that I typically read since she was commissioned to go on the trip by a magazine. Still, she *did* go there and *did* make the journey which is amazing in itself. Worth reading.
Sep 07, 2008
Corey
rated it:
A compelling book but I couldn't get through it. It's basically a diary of how Kira Salak kayaked up the Niger River to Timbuktu just like Mungo, an explorer.
I felt the writing was as slow as the Niger River was at getting Salak to Timbuktu.
I felt the writing was as slow as the Niger River was at getting Salak to Timbuktu.
