5 comments about Africa Solo: A Journey Across the Sahara, Sahel, and Congo.

1. Kevin Kertscher's Africa Solo is the account of the kind of trek that just cannot be undertaken right now, and so it's worth reading for both its historical and its sociological value. Although it is different from many travel books in that it focuses on individual experience rather than history or events, the book offers a different kind of education: a single person's insight and experience.

   In the late 1980s, Kertscher trekked - mostly by hitchhiking, with some walking and one plane trip - through West, Central, and East Africa, taking a winding path from Oran in Algeria to Nairobi in Kenya. He also traveled mostly alone, which gave him a lot more exposure to the continent, and put him in more danger as well. An average person like Kertscher probably could not duplicate this trip today; political instability and unrest have rendered many of the countries he visited more dangerous for foreigners, as well as altering the areas through which he traveled significantly since his journey.

   That change is one of the primary reasons why Kertscher's book is still worth reading - he provides an account of an older Africa the one that gave birth to the current one. His observations of Mobutu's Zaire, while not as detailed as Helen Winternitz's in East Along the Equator, explain a great deal about the current situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And his account of Rwanda during a break in its long history of conflict is surprising - he describes it as one of the most peaceful and progressive countries in Africa.

   The personal perspective of the book - the author's solo movement through the continent, relying mostly on others for transportation - is also valuable; I got a better sense of the regional differences in the people than I have from other Africa books. Kertscher also experienced much more than most travelers do of the kindness of strangers in Africa; in his sort of travel, he was forced to rely on others, and it impressed me how often those others came through for him. I can't say I'd travel the way he did, but the results were apparently better than I would have expected.

   All in all, this is an engrossing read that provides a personal perspective on one portion of a very large place. Africa Solo should not be used as a guidebook, because of the many changes in the area, but cultures do change more slowly than governments, so perhaps a person planning a trip to the area would still benefit from this book. Certainly armchair travelers will enjoy it.




2. If you've been there, you'll recognize some of your own fantastic experiences; if you haven't been, READ THIS FIRST.



3. I actually had the privelidge of meeting the author at a bookstore where he was handing out his john hancock.. I rather scared him I think...

   but then again I suppose it is odd for an 11 year old to come up to you and start talking about the time she mummified a chicken.. but no matter

   This book was fairly interesting, and though I don't remember the particulars, his journey through Africa was well described and worth reading if you are interesting in traversing the continent (I don't happen to be interested in doing so- but then again I'm not the traveling sort)




4. This book talks about the author's experience traveling through many parts of Africa. The style of writing was simple and fun. However, the writer could have made more of an effort to learn about the people who live at the places he visited. At times, I felt he was traveling just for the sake of traveling.



5. I too could not put this book down. It is very engrossing and it keeps you entertained. I don't see why so many are affected/offended by its simplicity, as I don't think it was ever meant to compete with any in-depth literary accounts (The Little Prince is a simple story, yet still a thoughtful read). It is an honest tale from an innocent, often amusing, perspective. It strikes a particular chord with other travellers though. I have been to Africa but plan on doing a fairly similar, if more extensive, journey through the continent- yet, books like this one are often the only invaluable insight on street-smarts and dealings with locals. Granted it is dated, it still provides bits and glimpses into what these cultures entail. I only wish the author continued his story, with accounts of his explorations in Asia.

No comments about Insight Guide Tanzania & Zanzibar (Insight Guides).

5 comments about Mystery of the Nile: The Epic Story of the First Descent of the World's Deadliest River.

1. Pasquale Scaturro and Gordon Brown make the first "source to sea" expedition down the Nile. It is a splendid adventure that would make a great story. Unfortunately, the author spends nearly a third of the pages interjecting musings from himself (he wasn't there) and boring the reader with sideline stories that that have little if any connection with the current expedition. Just as the reader gets swept up in the adventure, the author interupts the scene with some left field factoid and destroys any sense of cadence. It's almost as bad as being in the grip of a televised Olympic event and having it interrupted by an inane story about the father of one of the athletes.
   
   The author, Richard Bangs, wasn't on the trip but writes an almost first person narrative based on interviews with Scaturro and assorted other people. Inexplicably, he doesn't interview Gordon Brown who comprised a full 50% of the expedition. Instead he castigates Brown at every turn for being moody, violent, "silent for days", self-absorbed, etc., etc. At no point does the author offer any explanation why Brown might be behaving the way he does. The reader is left wondering why and a simple over-the-phone interview of Brown would have answered these questions.
   
   In the final chapters Bangs decides (again, without talking to Brown) that Brown's anti-social behavior is linked to a brain cancer that has long-since been cured. Not only is it a convenient way for Bangs to avoid doing his homework and writing a definitive documentary; it's a blatantly cheap shot at Brown and any other person who has been challenged with a handicap - temporary or not.
   
   This is a wonderful adventure that deserves an honest, accurate, and well rounded accounting by a first rate author who isn't afraid to dig for details and doesn't have some personal axe to grind.



2. I loved the IMAX film production of Mystery of the Nile, and decided to pick up the book that accompanied it after wanting to know more about it. The editor, Richard Bangs, pieces together personal recollections of the actual "adventure team" leader, Pasquale Scaturro, with his own personal anecdotes (though he was never actually part of the expedition) into an engaging story.
   
   This expedition down the Nile River, from it's source at the White Nile to its ocean connection in Cairo, Egypt, is the first successful of its kind. The novel traces the hardships the teams faces while on the river, and off. In addition, it gives a good basic idea on the cultures and natural environments surrounding the Nile, but nothing very detailed. There were parts, however, that I found less than relative to the actual journey, which included blurbs on past adrenaline-exploits of Scaturro's to the point of slightly excessive, but interesting in its own accord. It has been over a year since I have read this book, and regret that I cannot summarize it in a more complete manner, but if you are looking for an easy, attractive novel to sit on the porch and read, give it a shot.



3. I bought this movie for my girlfriend after we'd been to the IMAX about three or four times to see it. Since then, we've probably seen it another nine or ten times. It really is a fascinating and exciting story about an expedition down the Nile.
   This is a great movie for anyone interested in nature and adventrure!



4. Richard Bangs' "Mystery of the Nile" takes the reader on a wild journey from the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea. The story has all the elements of a great off-the-beaten-path adventure. You'll hear about Class VI rapids, obstinate government officials, ornery hippos, breathtaking scenary, and even the creepy intrusion of a tapeworm. The main problem with the book is that Bangs didn't actually make the journey. Rather, he relied on the journal entries and personal conversations with Pasquale Scaturro, an American outdoorsman who was the leader of this expedition.
   
   Bangs can be forgiven for his vivid descriptions of scenes never seen. Poetic license, and all for the better. Where Bangs' dialogue grates is in his treatment of Scaturro's sidekick, Gordon Brown. Brown is raked over the coals for his irrational decisions and emotional tirades. Only at the end of the book does Bangs try to reconcile things by chalking up Brown's behavior to his cancer survivorship. There's no evidence that Bangs ever interviewed Brown following the adventure, nor attempted to come to terms with his side of the story.
   
   Like watching a big-budget Hollywood movie, if you can ignore nit-picky things like gaping holes in consistency and reality, you'll certainly enjoy the experience all the more. There's a lot to like about "Mystery of the Nile", particularly if you're in it for the perils of the journey, not the personalities of those involved.



5. I found this book full of adventure, very exciting and those who traveled this path should be commended. I couldn't do what they have done and I couldn't have written it better than Bangs even tho he wasn't along for the ride. Kuddos!

No comments about Hippos in the Night: Autobiographical Adventures in Africa.

1 comments about Dogon: Africa's People of the Cliffs.

1. The book is very good. Make a jorney in one of the Africa most interesting tribe. You will enjoy it. Good for those who have never been among dogons and even for those who have been there. You will find a lot of interesting information. Some pictures are not excellent but anyway I would recommend this book. It is very deep.

4 comments about Sahara: The Extraordinary History of the World's Largest Desert.

1. This masterful account of the Sahara is hard to surpass. Few books detail the Sahara and when they do they usually take the form of either purely scientific accounts or purely historical accounts. This book is one part history, one part geography, one part travel journal and one part science. The authors detail separate sections on the history of the Sahara, the peoples of the Sahara, the winds, the water, the geography and the wildlife. A special chapter covers the lifestyle of the Taureg tribesman. Special mention is made of the Islamic slave trade and the salt trade. Maps cover the many tribal groups, the amazing geography made up of Massifs and a map dedicated to the underground aquifers. Many wonderful photographs detail everything from a desert Hilton to the beautiful sand dunes to the people and wildlife of the Sahara. The Sahara is as large as the United States and includes a vast array of cultures and landscapes including the Qattara depression, and has over 2 million inhabitants. A must read for anyone interested in Africa, geography or extreme places.



2. It is generally unavoidable to write about history while not having been there, but it is surely indefensible to attempt to describe the geography of a region with virtually no firsthand experience.The authors start off promisingly by dismissing the customary romanticism laid on the Sahara as "outsider thinking": the "pitiless sun" being no more than the "pitiless traffic" of Fifth Avenue. Thereafter great empires of West Africa are well accounted for (lifted from a previous book of the authors?) but beyond that, and their visits to Niger and Timbuktu, they get in a complete muddle. The howlers start from page 9 when we learn that the Tanezrouft is an erg and later that In Salah is "an epicentre of the oil industry" and Leptis was dug out of the sand. The nature of the harmattan wind also happens to contradict all previous sources, Ghat is an all but abandoned Tuareg camp and - get this - the canyon of Iherir contains the Sahara's only perennial river! This is a clanger of Saharan proportions but will hopefully bring some income to the poor village of Iherir when the whitewater brigade turn up.The problem is that the authors have been to the Sahara just a couple of times, more than most it is true but surely not enough to attempt a book such as this? One gets the impression they fell for the enigmatic Tuareg (as you do) and thought "heck, let's write our new book about Sahara and those shimmering courtly nomads!" Anyone who would dare take on such a task surely ought to read French and German. Perhaps this is why the authors quote repeatedly from a limited range of the usual English-language sources: Barth, Nachtigal plus Africanus and other ancients and the few Brits like Clapperton that put pen to paper. But they use these 19th century explorers as if they were as reliable as anyone and relevant today - including ancient spellings; have they not even heard of a Mich 741 map? Having done a lot of their groundwork for them fifteen years ago, Porch's excellent 'Conquest of the Sahara' gets a good work out, while Heseltine's 'From Libyan Sands to Chad' (1955 and a great little classic) is the veritable horse's mouth for Chad and the Tubu (so never mind about Jean Chapelle's 'Nomads Noirs du Sahara' then). And last but not least is the Encyclopaedia Britannica (online version...) for all those last minute queries. What a give away. Elsewhere the embellishment is irritating if to be expected - though you would have thought not in the "moonscape" Aïr, one of the few places in the Sahara (apart from Timbuktu) where the authors have actually been. They certainly do not appear to have visited the desert areas of Morocco, Chad, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania or even Egypt, or have nothing accurate to say about these places.But I liked the section on weather and also got a better understanding of the eminence of Old Ghana in the heyday of the trans-Sahara trade. In the end though, the authors prove that they too are outsiders - overlooking or skimming vast parts of Saharan geography like the Gilf Kebir (and not just the 'Western Desert'), the Tassili and Akakus, the distinctive Moorish culture and the Reguibat and the ongoing Tubu rebellion. They extrapolate from maps whose context they misunderstand: we learn that "dunes cover most of Western Sahara" while long-abandoned Tagheza somehow overrules Taoudenni today as a source of salt. They miss out on contemporary political upheavals too, as if they wrote the book 20 years ago. So it is that comprehending the Tuareg rebellion in Niger, (something which has set the Tuareg back years and was one of Micheal Buckley's better achievements in Grains of Sand) isn't allowed to interfere with eulogies on their preternatural guiding abilities, etc; the same, tired old Tuareg schtick.The trouble with making stuff up or guessing is that, besides making a fool of the authors, the reader does not know what else is fictitious and so the book's value is lost. Like it or not, Europe is the source of the greatest works on the Sahara, either through direct historical connection or learning. The definitive work on the Great Desert will, or may already be, written in French or German. This book certainly is not it.
   
   Chris S



3. I have no way of assessing this as a Saharan Travel Tips Guide, but whatever some reviewers may think, there are other pleasures on offer in travel literature; this is a lovely romantic and glimmering armchair trip to the Sahara of fantasy and mirage, and form some might be preferable to extensive information on appropriate tyre sizes. Not all travel books ask us to travel corporeally. Some ask us to use our imaginations. This is one, and it's rich and satisfying at that level.



4. I have never been to the Sahara, or even Africa, and had no intention of doing so until I read this book. Looking at the natural and human history of this area of the world, the book's text is an intersection of the various fields of geology, botany, ecology, geography, history, climatology, and surprisingly, even hydrology. The authors (there are two of them) have written a book that describes this area from North to South, from the Atlantic to the West, to Red Sea in the East. They cover all sorts of topics, from the aquifers that lie below the sand dunes, to describing the insect life above it, to the salt trading paths that criss-crossed these dunes. The book also examines how various human societies have come to live in this desert, sometimes in spite of it. These include native societies such as the Tuareg, Berbers, and more recent ones such as the various Arab nations. The book is written with a slight liberal tilt as one can sense the respect for nature and native societies, and the critique of modern societies. All in all though, it was a very interesting read, and I highly recommend it.

1 comments about Tanzania & Zanzibar, 2nd (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan).

1. Without a doubt the only guide that i have read which deals with the mid to top end of the travel market - a market that sadly none of the other travel guides seem to deal with.
   Wondefully written and hugely informative it allowed us to have an amazing time in tanzania

5 comments about Dancing with the Witchdoctor: One Woman's Stories of Mystery and Adventure in Africa.

1. I've lived and worked in Africa and these stories did not ring true with me...great adventures, based on some experiences, maybe...but biography??...I just don't know. Would love to know and would be happy to eat my words.



2. Avoid the nit-picking reviews over whether it really happened to her or not;it is labeled "fiction".I savored her stories like the finest chocolates;I wanted to read them all at once but rationed myself to one a night.Anybody criticizing her either cant write or is destined to fish discount books out of the clearance bin while stomping their feet that they teach literature.
   You want a book filled with travel,mysticism,endurance and the overall goodness of people,then by all means buy it.I wish she would write another book!



3. This book is a thoroughly good read. If you've been to Africa, or dream of going there, by all means have a look. However, I'm also intrigued by the negative review below by the English literature professor who "found this book in the bargain isle ..." Exactly where is the Bargain Isle and can I book a cruise there? Sounds like a shopper's dream.



4. I was prepared not to like this book; usually I am not a fan of short stories. After I read the first page, I could not put it down. Each story is a unique tale about the strength and power of women. The writer's straightforward and realistic writing style was refreshing. My husband loved the book - amazing adventure stories for all.



5. this book is so entertaining. it makes me envious of the adventures.
   I couldn't put it down, often waking up to read a few more pages...

No comments about Kenya: The Bradt Travel Guide.

5 comments about South Africa (Eyewitness Travel Guides).

1. I bought South Africa (Eyewitness Travel Guides) and have found it very helpful. We already had an itinerary planned and this guide showed us where we would be visiting, the weather, and gave useful background on each area. This guidebook gives pictorial views of historical sites, attractions etc. This was enlightening information, some of the places we will be going are far larger in area than we would have imagined. Also the attraction maps will help us keep oriented so time is not wasted being lost. With this guide and a good detail map of South Africa we gained insight about the length of travel needed each day. The biggest plusses were the pictures and drawings, they really are worth a thousand words as used in this guide. There is plenty of "survival" information; important phone numbers, medical suggestions, lodging recommendations etc. Lots of fun to read just for enjoyment!



2. Before I went to Cape Town, a thoughtful friend gave me this book, and I couldn't thank her enough. And although my comments below apply to the South Africa volume, they could well be applied to the entire series, which is excellent.
   
   The layout of the book is immediately arresting. Rather than imposing blocks of sheer text, the editors use tons of photographs, maps and other graphics. Just randomly flipping through this book is entertaining, which is not always the case with these types of publications. The typefaces are clear and well-chosen, and the enticing pages include many illustrations, the most unusual of which are cutaway diagrams of major buildings. These drawings are quite beautiful, and an unexpected delight in a book like this.
   
   Other sections deal with history, art and business. And still more sections cover "nuts and bolts" items like hotels and restaurants, and vital information such as availability of banks and ATMs, doctors and hospitals, and other trip considerations that one might overlook in the rush to depart. The book is a nice size to tuck into a bag, and will give hours of pleasure even after the trip is over.
   
   I've used guides by Fodor, Michelin and others, and although those are quite good, these Eyewitness publications really raise the bar.



3. I got this book as a present before i went to south africa. I was excited because I have heard that these books are really good. But after reading through the book, I quickly realizied that it did not give me enough information. I am in South Africa, I see how beautiful it is. I don't need to see pictures, I need maps, (there were only maps for Capetown)information about what i am seeing, costs of addmission, times, ect. There were none, and it became really annoying and unpleasant at many times. These books are good for people who just want to see how other countries/cities look like, but not travel to them. If you want a good travel book, look for the Lonely planet series.



4. I first discovered these books (a series Eyewitness Travel) by accident in a Stockholm bookstore. I had just come from Gothenborg by train and was a bit dazed. The book I bought by accident was in swedish but it still useful because of all the photos, cut away views, museum pictures, and maps and historical details. When I got home I bought a pile on Amazon.com of different places that I was going or had visited - but in english.
   
   On a cold day back here in the USA (or Canada) or elsewhere, have a glass of wine and sit in a nice chair or in the garden on a warm day and read this book. For a moment you will be back in South Africa. You are back in a small restaurant overlooking a busy street in Cape Town.
   
   The photos and desicriptions and cutaway drawings are excellent. Plus they throw in some history and details on the art and many other things of interest. A solid 400 page effort - lots of stuff to see and absorb. What is attractive about this book is that South Africa is not a well traveled country so we are not so familiar with the coutry. But the book brings it all to life with just magnificent photos and maps.



5. Excellent travel guide!
   It's very up-to-date and has a lot of detailed information.
   I especially loved the street-by-street and pictorial maps -extremely helpful!!!
   The only downside is that it doesn't really list any low-budget accomodation, the ones recommended are more on the high end...