Experimental Blog # 200

Comments on "Through the Embers of Chaos - Balkan Journeys" and "The Island That Dared - Journeys in Cuba" by Dervla Murphy

"Through the Embers of Chaos - Balkan Journeys"

The first few pages of this book describe a trip the author took to Croatia in 1991. At that time Yugoslavia had not yet disintegrated.
Part II of the book is about 50 pages, and it describes the author's visit to Serbia in 1999, about 8 years later.
Part III is about 280 pages, and it describes the author's journeys around Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro, and Kosovo in 2000. During this time Dervla Murphy was 68 years old, and she traveled by bicycle! She often pedaled over 50 miles in one day, and went up and down who knows how many thousands of feet; and, it seems, on trails and roads that no one else would ride on.

Dervla Murphy's physical and mental stamina are extraordinary, and she seems completely fearless. She was attacked and thrown to the ground twice, but she continued to take risks that, probably, no one else would take. She did not carry a weapon, a gun, although she could pretend that she had one.


"The Island That Dared - Journeys in Cuba"

For about the first 100 pages of this book, in 2005, the 73 to 74 year old Dervla Murphy is traveling in Cuba with her daughter and her three granddaughters, aged 6, 8, and 10. She is not averse to requiring unusual physical and mental effort from them, but they don't seem to mind; and they apparently accept these things as "normal".

For the rest of this book, in 2006 and 2007, Dervla Murphy is "trekking" by herself, not riding a bicycle as she did on so many other of her journeys.

In the "Island That Dared" Dervla Murphy reveals her very "left-wing" sympathies probably more than in most of her previous travel books. However, people do not have to share the author's politics to be captivated by this book. She is very highly informative about many matters, including: Fidel Castro and Che' Guevera. Ultimately, however, Dervla Murphy is not always very clear, about Cuban "participatory democracy", for instance; or completely persuasive in her arguments.