Much of the following information is from wikipedia, but I’ve checked it in several other sources, including David-Neel’s own writing.

Alexandra David-Neel was born in 1868 and died in France in 1969.  She was a fearless traveler and adventurer throughout her long life.  In her forties, she became a close confidante of the crown prince of Sikkim and met and was able to ask questions of the Dalai Lama, something no European woman of that time had done.  She lived in a cave on the Sikkim-Tibet border, studying spirituality, and there met a young Sikkimese monk, Aphur Yongden, who became her lifelong traveling companion and eventually adopted son.

In 1924, when she was in her fifties, the British forced her to leave the area, and she and Yongden went to Japan.  From there, however, they returned west across China, traveling disguised as pilgrims.  They entered Tibet, at that time forbidden to foreigners, and stayed two months there. 

A second trip across China and the Soviet Union at the time of the second world war was begun by the pair in 1937 when David-Neel was about seventy.  They were able to walk three times around the holy mountain of Amnye Machen, finally returning to France in 1946.  David-Neel continued to write, completing over thirty books prior to her death at age 100.

So how’s that for a hero?  I’ve been fortunate in my life to have done several things which only one or two women had done before me.  I have been profoundly grateful to those women, admired them, and recognized that third is about my speed.  I read of David-Neel’s adventures with knowledge that I have nothing like her courage and daring.  Yes, I’m going to motorcycle in northern Thailand but heck, that’s an established thing.  But crossing China in disguise when it was forbidden to foreigners, let alone women?  Nope, not this year.  Not me.  You go, girl.