Bettina Selby

Luck is probably the most important gift for any traveller, and I count myself very fortunate that when I began my travelling career mobile phones, GPS and mass tourism did not exist, and that from the outset I knew that I would have to rely entirely on my own resources to explore some of the wilder parts of the world, a world that was often nearer to what the Victorian women travellers found than to the present day. I was lucky too that I had already discovered the worth of that wonderful machine the bicycle for travelling in the sort of low-profile way that brought me close to the country and to its people, and that the riding had made me fit enough to make the journeys possible, Perhaps too I was fortunate in that I was only able to begin my travels at the age of forty-seven when I had gained some experience of life. That I came safely through many of what are considered the world's trouble spots no doubt was partly attributable to the fact that as a lone woman I constituted no threat, and that people from kings to dwellers in mud huts, were happy to talk with me and offer me hospitality. And perhaps my greatest luck of all was to be abkle to write about my travels and share them with a wider public.

For more about my life and extracts from my books, all of which are now available on Amazon Kindle, search for Bettina Selby on http://bettinaselby.com