The Long Riders

by Mick Jones

Four young British women set out in Marco Polo's footsteps this month, beginning a 10-month journey to retrace the ancient Silk Road. Their route will take them 7,500 kilometers from Turkmenistan in Central Asia to the former Chinese imperial capital of Xi'an. And they are going to do the whole thing by horse and camel.

"It'll probably sum up the Chinese impression of foreigners--barking mad," said Victoria Westmacott, the youngest of the group at 24.

The Silk Road was the artery for trade between China, Central Asia, India, Persia and Europe for hundreds of years. It was born in the second century BC, when the Chinese Emperor Wu Di sent a general named Zhang Qian west in search of the Yue-chi tribe.

Wu Di had heard the Yue-chi were bitter enemies of the Xiongnu Huns who were threatening his empire. He wanted Zhang Qian to find them and conclude an alliance. En route, however, Zhang and his retinue were captured by the Xiongnu. But Zhang was treated well -- to the extent of being given a wife -- and after several years he and his remaining followers escaped and continued west.

They finally found the Yue-chi, but discovered them peacefully settled and quite uninterested in battling the Xiongnu. After further explorations, Zhang finally turned for home. He was captured again on the way back, but once more escaped and returned to Wu Di's capital at Xi'an in 125 BC. He had been away for 13 years.

Zhang's tales of exotic cities like Kashgar, Ferghana, Samarkand and Bokhara caused a sensation in Xi'an, and paved the way for the opening of trade along the route he had followed.

For centuries, fabulous wealth and a myriad of cultures criss-crossed the deserts, of which the most formidable was the Taklamakan.

The Road went into decline as the Tang Dynasty crumbled. The victory of Muslim forces in the Taklamakan region put an end to the wealth of Buddhist culture that had established itself along the length of the route, and the Chinese empire ultimately closed itself off from the outside world in the 15th century. Many of the towns and cities of the Silk Road were abandoned to the shifting sands of the deserts, which buried them until they were rediscovered by enterprising European explorers in the last century (it was the German Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen who coined the route? name). Their hair-raising tales of the horrors of the Taklamakan would be enough to dissuade most people from going anywhere near it. But not these girls.

"I'm not scared at all, just very excited," said Victoria. "About eight months ago I was having the odd nightmare, but not now."

The trip is 25-year old Sophia ("Mouse") Cunningham's brainchild. She got the notion during her degree in Religion, History of Art, and Chinese at Edinburgh University, which included a period of study of the influence of Buddhism on the Silk Road. She first floated the idea in 1994, but it wasn't until two and a half years later that she decided to go for it. Her fellow travelers are all friends from those university days.

"I'd always wanted to do something similar," she said. "I used to work in the city and I hated it. I wanted to do something completely different. There have been very few travelers along that route by traditional methods since the days of the silk caravans."

The journey will begin by horse, but once the four are in China they will switch to camels. There are many potential hazards along the way, so all possible precautions are being taken.

"We're being trained in first-aid," said Victoria, "and we're have a backup team in a car we'll meet regularly. The backup will be supplied by local agencies."

Lucy Kelaart, 25, said: "I'm very excited, but obviously a little apprehensive. I think you need to be a little apprehensive; we're not stupid. Three-quarters of the route is desert."

The final member of the team, 25-year old Alex Tolstoy, was in Moscow organizing the Central Asian leg of the journey before Christmas.

"The Russians were pretty shocked by the idea," she said. "I guess it's quite a British thing. And my French friends are quite amazed. They think I'm a bit mad."

The trip is not just a grand piece of wish-fulfillment; the girls are also going to be raising money for the British disaster-relief agency Merlin.

"Although Merlin is British, it's got an international element," said Victoria, "so we thought it was appropriate. We wanted something all potential sponsoring companies would be happy with.

Finding sponsors to fund the trip was essential. The money ultimately came from a diverse range of sources, including Lloyd's, Horse and Hound magazine, and Rathbones (an investment bank), plus an anonymous racehorse owner who was "just interested in the spirit of the thing," according to Lucy.

"After we're finished the journey, there's still lots of work to do," said Victoria. "We've been approached by a publisher to do a book based on the log we'll be keeping, and we'll be doing lectures and continuing to raise money for Merlin.

"People say all the time, 'You must be so brave.' I don't understand, I don't think it's brave at all -- I think it's just something for people to say, because they don't know what to say.

"Getting it all organized has been difficult, but we can deal with hassles. We'll have to wait and see how we deal with things like deserts."