Wowsers, there’s a book and a half.

This is the incredible story of a group of political prisoners who escape from Siberia and walk all the way to northern India. It’s amazing what these people went through, and equally amazing is the welcome they get from people they meet on the way. The hospitality of strangers is so heart-warming it makes you tingle slightly; particularly when you’re part of a culture that’s completely the other way, and sees someone helping someone else as being cute but a bit weird.

The struggle that these people went through is indescribable; their trek through ice, snow, mountains, desert, exposed areas and all while they were seriously malnourished and exhausted. This is a genuine feat of tremendous endurance, far more so than any scheduled expedition. These people traversed the Himalayas with empty bellies and homemade moccasins! I could quite happily read this all over again.