When Dervla Murphy was ten, she was given a bicycle and an atlas, and within days she was secretly planning a trip to India.
For my tenth birthday my parents gave me a second-hand bicycle and Pappa [her grandfather] sent me a second-hand atlas. Already I was an enthusiastic cyclist, though I had never before owned a bicycle, and soon after my birthday I resolved to cycle to India one day. I have never forgotten the exact spot, on a steep hill near Lismore, where this decision was made. Half-way up I rather proudly looked at my legs, slowly pushing the pedals around, and the thought came “If I went on doing this for long enough I could get to India” (Wheels within wheels: autobiography)
Twenty-one year later, in 1963, she made good on that dream and the diary she kept while riding through Persia, Afghanistan and over the Himalayas to Pakistan and India became the basis of her book Full Tilt.
Undaunted by snow storms, and using her small calibre pistol to ward off starving wolves in Bulgaria and lecherous men in Persia, her resourcefulness was remarkable.
Dervla Murphy advised aspiring cycle tourers to ‘travel light and bring poetry’. And having travelled to India with her 5-year-old daughter, Murphy wrote of the benefits of travelling with a child:
A child’s presence emphasises your trust in the community’s goodwill. And because children pay little attention to racial or cultural differences, junior companions rapidly demolish barriers of shyness or apprehension often raised when foreigners unexpectedly approach a remote village.
Win a copy of Full Tilt
We have five copies of Full Tilt, the account of Dervla Murphy’s solo cycling trip from Ireland to India, to give away. To be in with a chance of winning the book, simply leave us a comment at the bottom of the page we’ll pick a name at random.
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