Lone traveller

'You don't have to be twenty, male and an ace mechanic to set out on a great journey. I've cycled round the world twice now. I'm not young, I'm not sporty, I never train, I appreciate good food and wine and I still can't tell a sprocket from a chainring or mend a puncture!' So speaks Anne Mustoe, a retired headmistress in her sixties, in the opening to this fascinating record of her second epic journey cycling around the globe from East to West. Using historical routes as her inspiration, Anne followed the ancient Roman roads to Lisbon, travelled across South America with the Conquistadors, pursued Captain Cook over the Pacific to Australia and Indonesia and followed the caravans along the fabled Silk Road from Xi'an back to Rome. Incorporating fascinating stories of police arrest, the threat of guerillas and attacks by wild dogs, Lone Traveller is an absorbing account of one woman's experiences on a remarkable journey.