Eleanor Meecham cycled alone around South America, and lived to tell the tale.  And what a tale it is. Camping in a salt desert, getting altitude sickness, rough roads… this is definately an intrepid tale.

The book is Llamas and Empanadas, published by Penguin books.

Reviewed here

Christina Laun writes in travelhacker Traveling alone can be a rewarding and exciting experience, as it forces you to make new friends and allows you to make your own agendas without worrying about what someone else wants to do. Unfortunately, traveling solo can also be dangerous if you don’t take the appropriate precautions. Use these 40 or so tips to help keep your next solo adventure safe and happy. Read more

Clover Stroud writes in the Telegraph, reviewing Women Travellers: A Century of Trailblazing Adventures 1850-1950 (Flammarion, £24)”In the wake of Sir Edmund Hillary’s death, it’s worth remembering not only the vast numbers of intrepid women explorers, but also - as this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book makes clear - the many “ordinary” women who travelled at times when one might have expected them to be homebound by convention.”

Read the article here

I have written about Trekking 4 Women - a New Zealand site where Anne Young organises treks for women in Nepal and Africa.Today I came across this site where three Nepalese sisters Lucky, Dicky and Nicky Chhetri, are pioneers in the field of female trekking guides. Since 1994, they have worked towards empowering women in Nepal.

In the early ninety’s no one would have dreamed of a Nepalese women guiding a trek. Nepalese society is ruled by the Orthodox Hindu religion where women are considered second-class citizens. Their role is to be a diligent wife, a loving mother, and an obedient daughter-in-law. Society dictates that a woman should not cross out of her home threshold. But the Chhetri sisters did just that.

Sisters are doing it for themselves - fantastic!