Courage Quest: Through Solo Adventure Travel

This is an engaging memoir of one woman's solo backpacking travels through areas of the world most would not tackle, she searched fifteen years for courage by confronting fear. Sally DeMasi stepped from her comfort zone to expand new horizons and face her personal fears. Leaving a lucrative career behind, she chose a backpack over a rolling suitcase.Staying in hostels, traveling as locals do by bus, dolmuses, and ferries or on foot, she defiantly overcame - walking the streets of Nairobi, paddling down the angry Amazon River, meeting the empathetic people of Turkey, and, even in her new home state, challenging the major Salmon River rapids in Hell's Canyon and beyond, with a new love. She conquered her fears.DeMasi provides vivid descriptions of people she met on her travels and her dangerous encounters as she peeled away the layers and repetition of an old life to reveal her real and confident self, a new refreshed and distinctive lens of self-discovery. "Courage Quest" reveals a story of personal growth that is both uplifting and inspiring. Sally's story offers encouragement to others, regardless of age or gender, to understand and overcome fear of the unknown. The reader may find a path within this memoir to explore how to reinvent theirs.Reviews: Review on Goodreads by John Enemark March 10, 2014"Courage Quest describes the journeys of Sally Demasi, a middle aged woman who after divorce and becoming increasingly unfulfilled working in the Corporate world decides that she needs to find Courage within herself to break free from that existence by traveling much of the world on her own with only a backpack and God's good grace to reach her goal of discovering a new meaning to her life.Demasi's book poignantly illustrates her journey traveling the world such as paddling 100 miles down the Amazon suffering severe physical pain and intestinal parasites, walking extremely dangerous neighborhoods of Athens, traveling Africa and the Middle East and Peru documenting in great detail the people she met and made new relationships with, carrying with her only the bare necessities in her backpack and staying in local Hostels among real people of the region. Sally's writings held my interest from beginning to end and the book includes beautiful photography of the people and landscapes throughout her journeys.I highly recommend Courage Quest to anyone who would ever wonder what life is really like outside of the comfort and luxury of the USA."Dania Van Schuyler, designer and traveler"Unexpected beauty unfolds in dangerous circumstances in Sally DeMasi's new book "Courage Quest." Through her recollections of solo adventure travel she experiences personal growth with newly found courage extracted from being forced out of her comfort zone. I enjoyed learning of fascinating places and people as though I had been packed in her super light backpack going along for the ride, andanxiously awaiting the outcome."Thea Belecz"Sally DeMasi distills her extensive experience in global traveling into challenging adventures: "I did not realize at the time that I was visiting one of the most important sacred sites in the world to heal the body, enlighten the mind, and inspire the heart."Ms. DeMasi's experiences will do the same for you not only through reading the text, but following her 'footsteps' and suggestions at the end of the book."