The book is supposedly taken straight from the letters she wrote home as she was on the journey, and while it made me a little jealous of the travels, it also made me feel like an utter weakling because I don't think I could ever so fearlessly throw myself into such a project. Plus she finds the time to get her experiences down on paper under various lighting conditions and to throw in some meditations on cultural differences while she's at it (she is not always charitable- doesn't think much of Sikhs- and sometimes she seems to idealize, but this just adds to the feeling that I as a reader am getting the honest uncensored truth about her impressions). Ho-hum, Dervla is so nonchalant- nothing fazes her- I LOVE her. Here's a typical way she describes one of the many intense events she experiences: 'we crossed without difficulty, unless the agony of being two-thirds submerged in newly melted snow counts as a difficulty'. She goes on this crazy trip from Europe to India on a bicycle (leaving in the middle of winter), meets all sorts of sweet people (and a few jerks), lives on clover for days and nearly starves to death, gets sick and sunburnt multiple times, deals with nasty insects and bad sanitation and wild animals and human beaurocracies, climbs up and down mountains and drags her bike along (sometimes on her back) when the roads get bad, falls in and out of love with the cultures who take her in and the landscapes she passes by, and keeps the most upbeat attitude and sense of humor the entire time. Most of the book concerns the high mountain country of Afghanistan and Pakistan.A spirited account.'-Library Journal.

She endured bad accommodations but reaped much local hospitality, too, including a dinner with the Pakistani president. She carried a pistol, got sunstroke, and suffered the usual stomach disorders. Her route was through Yugoslavia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and ended in New Delhi. 'This book recounts a trip, taken mostly on bicycle, by a gritty Irishwoman in 1963. Venturing aloneaccompanied only by her bicycle, which she dubs Rozthe indomitable Murphy not only survives daunting physical rigors but gleans considerable enjoyment in getting to know peoples who were then even more remote than they are now.-Publishers Weekly. Murphy's immediate rapport with the people she alights among is vibrant and appealing and makes her travelogue unique. Originally published in 1965, it is the diary of her bicycle trek from Dunkirk, across Europe, through Iran and Afghanistan, over the Himalayas to Pakistan and India.

Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy