Lone Traveller: One Woman, Two Wheels and the World

I had the great opportunity to meet Anne Mustoe on my recent travels in Mali, West Africa. She is a great lady and I could hardly wait to get home and read her 2 books. I couldn't put them down. Her descriptions are animated, entertaining and humorous. They are filled with lots of great advice for any traveller who wants to go everywhere, whether on bike or not. She provides an insight into cultures that only a traveller going through many different countries in succession can provide. It is not hard for me to imagine her in Italy or the Gobi desert pedalling along. I anxiously look forward to her next book 2 Wheels in the Dust.

When I heard that Anne Mustoe had written a second book on her travels, I just had to have it. Her first book "A Bike Ride" is one of my favourite travel books, read and re-read over the years. At age 54, she left her job and set out alone to circle the globe on her bicycle (as detailed in "A Bike Ride"). Once was not enough for the intrepid Mustoe, however, and at 60 she embarked on a second world cycle tour which she describes in "Lone Traveller". Starting from the Colosseum in Rome, she followed Roman Roads to Lisbon. From there she travelled the routes of the Conquitadores across South America, followed in the footsteps of Austrailan explorers through the Outback and embarked on the fabled Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean. Anne Mustoe is intelligent, articulate and literate. A scholar and former headmistress, her expolits are told in an engaging and delightful fashion. She brings a freshness and immediacey to her writing, unlike the cynical observations of many world-weary travel writers. Mustoe is delighted to immerse herself in new countries and cultures, but without sugar-coating the difficulties met and sumounted along the way. Her amazing joureys make for a breathtaking read -- I had great difficulty in putting this book down.