Silk Route Adventure

On Horseback in the Heart of Asia

Claire Burges Watson

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English

Miscellaneous
01 July 2007

Travel & holiday; Travel writing; Bargains

Rebelling against the predictability of banking life, and with only her wits to equip her, Claire sets off on her own on an eighteen-month, 6,000-kilometre horseback adventure across Central Asia. Silk Route Adventure takes you through rolling Mongolian prairie lands, monotonous Kazakh steppes, scales 4,000-metre passes in Kyrgyzstan, and crosses the black sands of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. Throughout the journey, the author overcomes numerous obstacles and dangers, such as drunken and sometimes violent guides, hostile border police, raging rivers, snow-bound passes and seemingly endless stretches of desert. She fights to keep her horses alive and supplied with fodder in the bitter Kazakh winter and the unbearable heat of the Fergana Valley. In contrast to her remote and often harsh surroundings, coupled with the brutal realities of life in Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, she encounters the warm tradition of nomadic hospitality, witnessing a way of life largely untouched by modernity. Woven into the story of her adventure, Claire sets Mongolia and the 'Stans' in their historical context tracing their history from the height of Genghis Khan's time to their absorption into the Soviet Union when they were largely forgotten by the West. Illustrated with 100 superb colour photographs and an immensely detailed map of the route, Silk Route Adventure is an enthralling account of a seemingly impossible journey completed by a determined and eminently resourceful woman.

By: Claire Burges Watson
Imprint: Miscellaneous
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 920g
ISBN: 9780709080619
ISBN 10: 0709080611
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 01 July 2007
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Other merchandise
Publisher's Status: Active

Claire comes from a large family and has always led an itinerant lifestyle. She travelled widely as a child, living in Japan, Brussels, Italy and Nepal. After obtaining a BA in history from Magdalen College, Oxford, she moved to Hong Kong where she worked in the financial markets. While living in the Far East, she travelled extensively in South East Asia and also undertook a solo camel expedition into the Taklamakan desert in China. During her time in Hong Kong, she completed a triathlon and a marathon to raise money for charities in Burma and in Mongolia. After leaving Hong Kong, she undertook the journey recounted here (which raised more than GBP 40,000 for charity) and then spent some time living in Italy. She is currently living in London.