Beyond Siberia

by Christina Dodwell

Featuring the travels and adventures of Christina Dodwell in the remote 1000-kilometre-long Kamchatka Peninsula on the eastern extremity of the former Soviet Empire, this book shows Dodwell travelling into a world of active volcanoes and crater lakes, of mammoths and glaciers and poison gases, and tundra at a winter temperature of -50 C. She took up with a dance troupe travelling round performing for reindeer breeders, and stayed on to share the reindeer people's life, learning to drive deer, dogs, a helicopter and a vezhod, and taking part in a reindeer sled Grand National.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Russia

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Christina was born in Nigeria, West Africa, and educated in England. Her life of remarkable adventure began by chance in 1975, when she made a 20,000-mile journey round Africa by horse, camel and dug-out canoe. She followed that up with journeys in Papua New Guinea, China, Siberia, Madagascar, Turkey and Iran.

Christina has made 3 television films and more than 40 radio documentary programmes for BBC Radio 4 - several have received distinguished merit awards. She has worked for the Consulate of Madagascar in London for fourteen years and in 1995 she founded The Dodwell Trust, a charity dedicated to the Third World.

Christina was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 1989.

Like Isabella Bird and Rosita Forbes, Christina demonstrates enormous courage, a keen eye for detail, an insatiable curiosity about the local people and great respect for their culture.