Daily Crack - Kira Salak, The Real Lara Croft
A friend of mine Jack, who is a reporter for CBS News said he had an undiscovered gem for me to write about. CBS recently aired a story that he produced and shot of this amazing adventure travel writer named Kira Salak. He said the NY Times called her “the real life Lara Croft.” At that, he got my attention and I felt most certain that she must know or at least be aware of another friend of mine named Wade Davis, who has been called the “real Indiana Jones,” has the title of “Explorer in Residence” with National Geographic, and is someone I hope to interview for my “In My Circle” monthly magazine style interview.
For his story Jack traveled with Kira for several days as she kayaked down the Irewaddy River in Burma/Myanmar. (see photo) He said that Kira was someone who had written terrific non-fiction for years shedding light on the dark corners of the world, and that her life was truly fascinating. With this information at hand I immediately googled Kira to find out what I could about her, and of course Jack was right, she is an extraordinary woman! Below is a small sampling of what I discovered.
Kira Salak seems to be as much of an explorer as she is a traveler and one would never call Kira a tourist. She has traveled solo to almost every continent and has spent time kayaking, cycling, and traversing remote locations around the world including Papua New Guinea, Mozambique, Borneo, and Madagascar to name a few. During her travels, as she mostly travels solo, she has had to deal with a lot of female stereotypes and comments. But I read in one article where she recalled going down the Niger River and how the village women crowded the shore and cheered for her calling out “Femme forte” strong woman. I thought how satisfying that must have been and how good it must have felt to be recognized in that way.
Salak started writing stories of adventure at age 6 even though at that age they were simply imaginative journeys. She continued to write throughout her childhood. When she was 20 she was backpacking alone through Africa, ended up finding herself in the middle of a civil war and was kidnapped by some rebel soldiers. She was forced to make an escape. She said of this experience that it opened her eyes and made her see much of what the world wants to ignore, and rather then shying away, it gave her the impetus to go to other dangerous places and cover emotionally difficult stories that no one else wants to cover in the hopes she might make a difference. This attitude has brought her face to face with the genocide in East Congo, slavery in Timbuktu, and many more challenging situations.
She has also managed to find time for other sorts of adventures, like the time she cycled nearly 800 miles across Alaska to the Arctic Ocean. But through all her travels around the globe Salak says no matter where she goes she always finds a common ground and believes that people from all walks of life basically want the same thing, “peace, happiness, success for their children, and the best standard of life.”
Earning a PhD in English literature and creative writing from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Kira’s first novel is just out and it is getting raves (front page of the Wall Street Journal a few weeks back). It’s called “The White Mary.” I highly encourage you to check it out. To learn more about this extraordinary woman you can also check out Kira Salak’s website. That address is www.kirasalak.com
Kira Salak has won the PEN award for journalism and appeared five times in Best American Travel Writing. Her nonfiction account of being the first woman to traverse Papua New Guinea, “Four Corners,” was a New York Times Notable Travel Book of 2001, and in 2005 she received the “National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer Award.”