Gustato spiritu, desipit omnis caro.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
































KIRA SALAK KAYAKING 600 MILES TO TIMBUKTU


Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali


Kira Frees Two Slave Women in Timbuktu--

I wanted to buy the freedom of two Bella slave women, so I negotiated with their Tuareg master, Zengi (pictured in the photos). Incredibly, Zengi ended up charging me ~US $130 per woman. Later, I talked to the women in private, and they spoke of physical abuse and rape at the hands of their Tuareg masters.

Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali


Scenes of the Niger River en route to Timbuktu

Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali
Photos of Kira Salak Kayaking 600 Miles To Timbuktu, Mali


Kira Salak's "The Cruelest Journey"

THE CRUELEST JOURNEY: SIX HUNDRED MILES TO TIMBUKTU

READ THE ENTIRE STORY OF SALAK'S JOURNEY UP THE NIGER RIVER THROUGH MALI

by Kira Salak


Kira Salak became the first person in the world to kayak alone 600 miles on the Niger River of Mali to Timbuktu, retracing the fatal journey of the great Scottish explorer Mungo Park. Enduring tropical storms, hippos, rapids, the unrelenting heat of the Sahara desert, and the mercurial moods of this notorious river, Kira Salak traveled solo through one of the most desolate and dangerous regions in Africa, where little had changed since Mungo Park was taken captive by Moors in 1797.

Dependent on locals for food and shelter each night, Salak stayed in remote mud-hut villages on the banks of the Niger, meeting Dogan sorceresses and tribes who alternately revered and reviled her--so remarkable was the sight of an unaccompanied white woman paddling all the way to Timbuktu. Indeed, on one harrowing stretch she barely escaped with her life from men chasing after her in canoes. Finally, weak with dysentery but triumphant, she arrived in the fabled city of Timbuktu and fulfilled her ultimate goal: buying the freedom of two Bella slave women. This unputdownable story is also a meditation on courage and self-mastery by a young adventuress without equal, whose writing is as thrilling as her life.



Kira Salak's "The White Mary"

THE WHITE MARY
by Kira Salak

"A gripping debut novel."
Publishers Weekly Pick-of-the-Week


"There aren't many books that we hand to friends, urging,
'You have to read this.' The White Mary is one of them."
Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Riveting."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"With The White Mary, journalist Kira Salak makes a stunning
debut as a novelist. This is a story whose beauty and power
sweeps you along, like the jungle rivers that bear her heroine
into the heart of New Guinea in search of a vanished American."

--Philip Caputo