An amazing personal journey and detailed descriptions of Mali
This book is really two stories - the story of the country of Mali along the Niger River as seen by Salak as she retraces the route of Mungo Park (the first Western Explorer to explore the interior of Mali and to reach Timbuktu), and the personal journey of the author, Kira Salak.
The incredible descriptions of life on the Niger River brought me along with Salak on her grueling journey and allowed me to experience scenes that few Westerners have ever seen. Salak's descriptions of the culture, beliefs and lifestyles of the tribes living in Mali along the Niger River were informative and educational. Her story of slavery in Timbuktu is one of the most detailed I have seen. If you want an accurate view of life in Africa, this is a must read book.
The second story, the personal journey of the author, was one of the most inspiring I have read. As you journey with Salak you will find yourself joining her as she overcomes extreme obstacles such as ignoring the pain of a sprained wrist as she kayaked, dealing with Muslim extremists and occasionally escaping from them, finding food and a safe place to rest each night, kayaking through storms, etc. How often in life do we find small obstacles stopping us? Salak teaches us that we have the power to overcome even the most difficult obstacles in life.
Of course, if you love kayaking, this is a book that will inspire you from the first stroke of her paddle to the very last stroke.
What makes this book really great is Salak's writing style that draws you in, pulls you along and puts you right there in the kayak with her. A great work of non-fiction that I highly recommend for anyone who wants a good book to read.

A kayak and a big river
Following in the footsteps of Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who traversed the land and the river in the eighteenth century, Salak sets out to kayak down the Niger River in the west African country of Mali. Unlike Park's ill-fated -and ultimately fatal- journey, Salak makes it to Timbuktu, the ancient "city of gold" right below the Saharan desert. Her journey was funded by the National Geographic Society, and she often runs into the hired photographer who is documenting her travels at stops along the river. She sets out from Old Segou with only a few vocabulary words of local tribal languages and a working knowledge of French. She has her inflatable red canoe, and a backpack of supplies.

Salak's writing style is very engaging - her strength and her fortitude come across in her writing, though never with a tone of arrogance. Each trial or trouble she encounters (and they are many: ripping a bicep muscle on the first day, hostile tribes, hippopatomi, dysentery) is documented clearly and unbiased. Any other person would have called it quits - but Salak finds courage and prevails in all of the circumstances.

Interwoven throughout her own narrative, Salak recounts Park's journey, over two hundred years before her own. Park was taken hostage, many of his crew members died, and he eventually died, although the circumstances surrounding his death are unclear. Salak relies on Park's diaries and determines that while they are from centuries ago, many of the stories hold true: other places have changed, but this region of Africa has largely remained the same.

My only criticism of the book is that this incredible journey is condensed into a rather small book. I would have enjoyed more passages about the river itself, describing the geography, the biology, and the life of this body of water. The river is undoubtedly a character in the book, but it is largely unknown to the reader - a looming figure that is left a mystery. Perhaps this was done consciously, showing that the river cannot be understood or predicted. The other complaint comes from the last chapter: when Salak arrives in Timbuktu, she makes it her mission to free two "slave" women (they work without compensation and are fully abused by their masters, yet the Malian government refuses to call it "slavery", despite this whole caste of people - the Bella - being continuously subjugated) from their Tuareg masters. She describes how this has been one of the missions of the whole trip. Then why did she mention it for the first time in the last 10 pages of the book? As a reader, I felt a little cheated for not knowing this earlier... that should have been something talked about at the beginning of the account. Her work is admirable, without a doubt, and she does "free" two women and gives them gold coins in order to start their own business. This whole encounter is discussed so quickly, that it almost seems like a gloss-over of the whole practice. Salak has to know that giving these women a gold coin is not going to make their life better; that being said, I am not discounting her action. One woman cannot go up against hundreds of years of the "peculiar institution" in a slowly developing country. I do wonder what happened to those two women after Salak left them in Timbuktu, only minutes after "freeing" them.

Salak's amazing journey left me hungry for more adventure - luckily she has a few more books on her other travels. She is a strikingly brave and courageous person, and a good writer too. I look forward to more.

Plus ca change....
Salak does a beautiful job of meshing her on-the-spot adventures with those of her mentor, Mungo Park. Although he died mysteriously on the journey after passing Timbuktu, the power of his experiences call to her out of the gap of 400 years through his writings. After reading this excellent travel account, I see that many things too often remain the same along the Niger: hatred by the Moor towards the non-Muslim to the point of physical torture and robbery, clitorodectomy for 90% of the women, slavery in Mali (where it is officially outlawed). Of course the Niger itself remains the same, too, and Salak has to contend with its gods the way Park did: they send unbearable heat, rain unlike any she has experienced, hunger....Because of her extraordinary sensitivity, the reader learns to absorb it all. Caroline Alexander's account of her retracing of Mary Kingsley's W. African journey in "One Dry Season" would be a good book to follow this account on one's bedside table.

VERY interesting journey through Mali, Africa by kayak
This book was very interesting and hard to put down because I was anxious to see what adventures lie ahead on the Niger River. The only thing I was disappointed in is that the author continued to hand out money perpetuating the problem of the locals thinking they can beg for money from anyone white. I just returned from South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe and, after reading this book, I can say I am EXTREMELY glad I did not travel to Mali! The hostilities, extreme poverty, slavery, and human mutilation she witnessed in Mali would've been depressing but at the same time I think it's something we should all learn about. I enjoyed the book so much I'm ordering her "Four Corners" book today. There are no photos in the book except for a small one of the author on the book cover. If you want to see the photos of her journey, you'll have to go onto the National Geographic site or do an internet search for Kira Salak.

I Couldn't Put It Down,
This book is many things. It's an adventure story. It's a geography lesson. It's a study in anthropology. It's an exposition on the mindset of an explorer.

Mostly, it's a well-written tale of an American woman, Kira Salak, and her quest to continue living an extraordinary life. "If a journey doesn't have something to teach you about yourself, then what kind of journey is it?" she writes. This book takes us along for the ride. The tone is conversational, very readable, honest, and refreshing.

The Cruelest Journey is aptly named. Indeed, Salak recounts a grueling journey inside an inflatable red kyak, 600 miles along the Niger River in the West African country, Mali. She encounters both friendly and hostile villagers, calm and stormy weather, hunger, injury, sickness, potentially dangerous hippos, and incredible uncertainty. Using the Scottish explorer, Mungo Park, as a mentor of sorts, she attempts to reenact his adventure some 200 years earlier. She finds that not a lot has changed from what she read in his memoirs, which she holds close throughout the trip and quotes often.

Before I picked up this book, I didn't know where to point on a map to tell anyone the location of Timbuktu. It's a mysterious place, often used to describe the outskirts of the world. Salak's journey doesn't dispel this myth.

I found this story fascinating and highly recommend it.

Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.