I take a deep breath. He puts the snake around my neck. It wraps, one head cuddling my jugular, the other tentatively exploring my cleavage. My eyes are shut and my heart races.
I can’t open my eyes.

I just can’t.

Suddenly in my head I hear the words spat at me by my grandfatherly guide on a particularly sheer edge of the Matterhorn, when I was frozen in fear and exhaustion: “You are a tough girl! Action! Action!”

I open my eyes.

And the world gets bigger.

Holly Morris is a host of Globe Trekker. The series tied to her book Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for a New Kind of Heroine is available on DVD.

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Watch: Behind the Scenes of "The Risky Path to Courage"

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