Let’s start our series of female adventurers with the Swiss photographer ELLA MAILLART (1903-1997).
Usually one talks of her more famous (?) travel-companion Annemarie Schwarzenbach and their trip together with a Ford car to Afghanistan in 1939. Ella Maillart wrote several books of her travels, e.g. “Turkestan Solo – One Woman’s Expedition from Tien Shan to the the Kizil Kum” (Journey from Moscow to Kirghiztan and Usbekistan 1932) and “Forbidden Journey – From Peking to Kashmir” (1935).
With which should I start?
Very few of her photographs can be found on this website: http://www.ellamaillart.ch/photos_en.php
And here is a short article about her (in German):
http://www.literaturundkunst.net/tollkuhne-weltsturmerin/