Kira Salak: Queen of Daring Adventures

She has proved herself to be a passionate and gutsy explorer who gained a reputation for being a tough adventurer, surviving war zones, coup attempts, and life-threatening bouts with malaria and cholera. Called a ‘real-life Lara Croft’ by the New York Times, she has travelled to almost every continent, visiting some of the world’s most remote and unfriendly places, that too all alone! She is Kira Salak, a contemporary American explorer.

Salak was born on 4 September 1971 in a western suburb of Chicago. Her father was a repairer of mainframe computers and her mother was a waitress. At 14, Salak was sent to a boarding school in Wisconsin. She obtained her B.F.A from Emerson College and M.F.A in writing from the University of Arizona.

Travelling was Salak’s passion, and she followed it seriously. She backpacked through eastern and central Africa when she was 20.

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