Summary: Undertaking a journey not successfully completed since the days of Genghis Khan, a professional adventurer recounts his travels by horseback across the entire length of the Eurasian steppe, a 6,000-mile, three-year-long trip.
Booklist Reviews
An adventurer who has sailed down Siberia's Yenesei River, among other quests, Cope mounted a horse in Mongolia in 2004 and set out for the opposite end of the Eurasian steppe, Hungary. This was the vast sphere conquered by the Mongol Empire in the 1200s, the historical memory of which accompanied Cope as surely as did his contemporary education in nomadic living. Embarking without much prior experience in things equestrian but gifted with foreign-language skills, Cope proceeded across exceedingly challenging if not downright dangerous landscapes of deserts, mountains, and plains. At many points, Cope's journey seemed sure to be thwarted by wolves, thieves, or bureaucrats, but three years later, Cope, his steeds, and his dog, Tigon, arrived triumphantly in Hungary. Within this theme of difficulties met and mastered, the people Cope met on the way become vividly characterized as jocular or menacing, helpful or hindering in the narrative's large stock of intercultural encounters. (Cope is Australian.) Weaving acute observation, honest introspection, and a sense of history, Cope crafts a marvelously perceptive travelogue of an audacious odyssey. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.
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