On her tenth birthday , Dervla Murphy was given a bicycle and an atlas. And there and then , she decided that one day she would bicycle to India. Twenty-one years later she did. In January 1963 she set out alone from the north coast of France, with "Roz" a newer bigger bicycle. she had two bags of luggage over the back wheel a small rucksack on her back and a gun which she had practised using in the mountians of Ireland near her home. Her friends had laughed at the gun but she was going to need it for her protection