I loved the backstory of Kate’s early fixation on explorers. It reminded me how important being open to new people can be to memorable travels-or just everyday life. In one country, the families they stayed with one night would call ahead to their friends in the next town on the route, ensuring Kate and Mel always had somewhere lined up to stay. All the way across the Silk Road, generous people invite them into their homes and families. I really appreciated Kate’s descriptions of the kindness of the locals they meet on their trip, and how these interactions influenced the course of their adventure. It’s been so long since many of us travelled to another country, or immersed ourselves in different cultures. It’s refreshing to read about the interpersonal conflicts that are seemingly inevitable on any kind of adventure, even with someone you really like. They have moments of tension, from one suffering in the elements more than the other, to varying degrees of social endurance with people they meet along the way. The pair trade off being the motivated one, like one morning where Kate reads a sleeping-bag bound Mel a few lines of inspiring poetry while making them coffee along the Black Sea in Turkey. Kate’s description of the dynamics with an adventure partner are so honest.
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