Hello books lovers! And hello to all of you who, like me, wish they could travel, but can't because of the pandemic. Such a stick in the mud. So, to remediate that, I'm planning on taking a trip from my bedroom (or my living room, if I'm feeling adventurous). I am going to follow the footsteps of really inspiring solo female travellers, and explore Africa, Australia or Russia, wherever they take me. Here are five books, either memoirs from badass travellers or travel guides for women, for all of you stuck-at-home travellers, cautious adventurers, and thrill seekers!
- Wild, by Chery Strayed
A classic. Wild is Cheryl Strayed's memoir of her 1,100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995 . At 22, Strayed was devastated by the death of her mother, while the rest of her family and her marriage fell apart. With nothing more to lose, no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she set off to hike 1,100 miles in the wilderness, from the Mojave Desert to a place on the Oregon-Washington border called Bridge of the Gods — and she did it it alone. This book is as much a recount of her adventure as it is a journey of self-discovery. It held the No. 1 spot on the Times’ best-seller list for seven weeks, was translated into 32 languages, and sold some 1.75 million copies.
- Somebody’s Heart is Burning: a woman wanderer in Africa, by Tanya Shaffer
Somebody's heart is burning is a collection of short stories, by Tanya Shaffer, an American woman who spent a year in Africa, fleeing a relationship. She began her journey as a work-camp volunteer in Ghana, and then visited Mali and East Africa. Eager have a genuine experience of the place rather than a tourist's perception, Shaffer worked as a volunteer, building schools and hospitals in remote villages in Ghana, Mali and East Africa. She shows the collision of African and North American cultures throughout her stories.
- Elsewhere: One Woman, One Rucksack, One Lifetime of Travel, by Rosita Boland
Rosita Boland spent the last three decades seeking new experiences and adventure on every part of the globe. In this serie of essays, she documents nine journeys from nine different moments in time. From a bus journey in Pakistan to Antarctica, through Australia,Thailand, Peru, Iceland, Bali, Japan or England, her book reveals how exploring the world, and those we meet along the way, can shape the course of a person’s life.
- Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback, by Robyn Davidson
Robyn Davidson recounts her 1977 epic journey across seventeen thousand miles of Australian desert and bush. She was 26, and accompanied by four camels and her dog Diggity, when she threw herself in this adventure. Her story was first published in the National Geographic, which had funded her journey and had photographer Rick Smolan document her journey, and then in her memoir. Her incredible adventure was adapted into a movie in 2013.
- A Woman Alone: Travel Tales from Around the Globe, by Faith Conlon
This book is a collection of travel stories from 29 different women. Marybeth discovers the dubious pleasures of desert camel-riding when she decides to follow an ancient Indian trading route. Faith, a black Buddhist nun, enters a deserted train station at 3:00 a.m. in a Thai village controlled by armed bandits. Ena negotiates with Russian police to visit the blue-domed city of Samarkand. In A Woman Alone, these women and others tell their funny, thrilling, occasionally terrifying, ultimately transformative stories of solo female travellers.
