The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu

A young adventurer with a history of seeking impossible challenges, Kira Salak became the first person in the world to kayak alone the six hundred miles on the Niger River to Timbuktu—“the golden city of the Middle Ages” and fabled “doorway to the end of the world.”

While Salak ventures into one of the most desolate regions in Africa, looming as a reminder of the danger she faces is the fate of great Scottish explorer Mungo Park, killed on the same route in 1797. Enduring tropical storms, hi...