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Excess Baggage: Afghanistan

Afghanistan

07/08/2010

BBC Radio 4 - Excess Baggage, Afghanistan

Sandi Toksvig hears three different views of travels in Afghanistan.

Sandi Toksvig explores Afghanistan with travel writer Jason Elliot, BBC foreign correspondent Jill McGivering and ski-mountaineer Suzy Madge.

Sandi Toksvig is joined by mountaineer and adventurer Suzy Madge who has recently returned from a horse, ski and mountaineering odyssey in Afghanistan. With no proper maps or photos to guide her, she travelled along the Silk Route in north east Afghanistan on horse, foot and ski. Mountainous valleys where only a handful of Westerners have been since Marco Polo in 1271, discovering a world of Kyrgyz nomads where no one has climbed or seen skis, far away from the bombs and Burkas of this beautiful country.

Sandi also talks to travel writer Jason Elliot who first visited Afghanistan in the 1980s, aged just nineteen, during the mujahideen's war against the Soviets. His latest book is a thriller set in the months leading up to 9/11.

They'll be joined by BBC foreign news correspondent Jill McGivering who has travelled extensively across Asia and reported from Afghanistan. Her novel is inspired by a real incident she experienced whilst being embedded with British troops in Helmand Province.

Producer: Harry Parker.

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