Practical, organized, strong, and fearless, Maillart was the perfect companion for Fleming.Ī forme Olympic competirtor, and a pioneer of Alpine climbing, 32-years-old Maillart had been travelling through the heart of Asia since the late ’20s, writing for a number of papers and publishing various books, both in French and in English – the most popular of which, Turkestan Solo, told her experiences as a solitary traveller in the western part of Turkestan.Įastern Turkestan was another story – few westerners had been there in more than a decade (at least officially – and the area was in a very interesting position, exactly between freshly-formed Soviet Union and increasingly volatile China.Īfter the adventure with Fleming* – which she documented in her own book, Forbidden Journey – Maillart woud return to Asia in the late ’30s, this time undertaking a trip by car from Switzerland to Kabul. There was a certain amount of curiosity, at the time – this being 1935 – about what was happening in those territories.Īnd with him, went Ella “Kini” Maillart, a young Swiss woman that, according to Fleming’s account, was the true man in the outfit. I met her for the first time in Peter Fleming‘s News from Tartary, in which the English journalist and adventurer relates his experiences as a happy-go-lucky traveller in Chinese Turkestan (or Sinkiang, or Xinjan, or Tartary).
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