Dervla Murphy
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Dervla Murphy (born November 23, 1931, County Waterford, Ireland) is a touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books.
In the midst of a record-setting blizzard in 1963, Dervla Murphy packed a pistol aboard Roz, her Armstrong Cadet bicycle and accomplished her first international bicycle tour - a completely self-supported solo trip from Ireland to India. In Yugoslavia, she began keeping a journal instead of mailing letters home. That journal was later published as her first book Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle. In Full Tilt, she describes her adventures through Persia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. She particularly enjoyed Afghanistan and wrote lovingly of that country.
In the forty years since, she has bicycled through, and published numerous books on, Africa, the Balkans, Tibet, and Siberia. Generally travelling alone and unaided, she offers compelling insights into the cultures and the lives of the people she meets.
External links
- A synopsis of Dervla's first book Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle (http://www.ahands.org/cycling/bicycling/dervla.html)
- Trailblazer: Dervla Murphy from the archives of the Irish newspaper The Sunday Business Post (http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2002/08/18/story326000.asp)