Dervla Murphy's journeys as a travel writer, usually in the remoter, poorer parts of the world, are made, appropriately enough, in the old manner -- on foot, by donkey or mule, or on decrepit trucks or buses on their last legs. Her favorite mode of transport, however, is the humble bicycle, an attachment that dates from a cycle ride made in 1962 from her native Ireland to India, a journey described in her first book, aptly titled "Full Tilt."
Murphy is an avowedly incautious traveler, someone who believes that a certain amount of risk is essential, and that only limited insights are afforded those not prepared to forgo their creature comforts for a degree of personal risk.
"Within a couple of generations," she opines, "we have become a timid race, neurotically overprotective, believing that physical risk (like physical discomfort) should, if possible, be completely excluded from everyday life."