A Siberian Winter's Tale - a gripping travel adventure by Helen Lloyd

A Siberian Winter’s Tale: Cycling to the Edge of Insanity and the End of the World is a new book about the three months Helen Lloyd spent cycling across one of the most remote, coldest inhabited regions of the planet - Siberia - in the depth of winter. The book - which I edited last year - is an extraordinary tale of adventure filled with the characters she met along the Road of Bones; a journey of discovery, driven by the call of the wild.

In temperatures down to -50C, she battled the cold, overcoming her fear of wolves and of falling through the ice of a frozen lake. Alone  in a hibernating land with little to stimulate the senses, her biggest challenges were with her own mind as she struggled with the solitude.

“For hours now – days even, weeks perhaps, for time is frozen here like the rivers – my world has been evaporating into nothing. Now, there is no sound except the beating of my heart, heavy breathing and the crackle of my bike tyres over the packed snow …

This is how I imagine the end of the world will be ... all white – pure and untouched – seeing everything; seeing nothing. We'll each stand alone, in peace, surrounded by a blank canvas that can be transformed into any image our mind desires. But when you hear or see something emerge from this white nothingness, how will you know if it's real or in your head?”

In a touching story full of warm-hearted moments, humour and riveting descriptions that will have you living each moment with her, she also shows the joys of her astonishing adventure. A Siberian Winter's Tale is Helen's second book. Her debut book, Desert Snow, about her 25,000-kilometre bicycle ride through Africa, was a finalist in the Readers' Favorite Book Awards in the Cultural Non-Fiction category, and has received numerous five-star reviews.

"Cycling through Siberia in winter … encapsulates the very best of extreme adventure travel. Helen has proved herself to be a voracious traveller, a tough adventurer, and a fine writer." - Alastair Humphreys, British adventurer

"[Helen Lloyd] is brave, funny, thoughtful and writes in clear detail about how life is being a long-distance cyclist. I think Helen is one of the most interesting explorers

on earth today, on the young scene.” - Mikael Strandberg, Swedish explorer

For more information: http://www.takeoncreative.com/books/a-siberian-winters-tale/

www.helenstakeon.com