Riding the Mountains Down – A Journey by Bicycle to Kathmandu –

“This is the remarkable account of a lone female cyclist’s  hazardous and often hair-raising 5000 mile journey from Karachi to Kathmandu. Although Bettina Selby, mother of three grown-up children, enjoyed much kindness and hospitality during her five month journey, the reaction of some local men to an unaccompanied Western woman on their roads was intensely curious, at times brusque, sometimes escalating to dangerous violence. Surmounting many difficult encounters with courage and great resourcefulness, she also had to face the heavy physical stresses of keeping going in broiling heat on dust-blown and treacherous roads shared with ancient buses, speeding trucks driven by maniacs, farm carts, herds of quadrupeds and hordes of usually unsympathetic local cyclists. In the mountains, the ride became even more dangerous – avalanches, floods, dacouts, amorous Moslems, bad curry and stone-throwing children.

Bettina Selby presents an unusual view of India and Pakistan and records some vivid, memorable scenes among many different people met on the road.’