Crossing the Heart of Africa

Author: Julian Smith
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062030612
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 339

Book Description
Banff Mountain Book Awards WINNER The spellbinding true story of retracing the extraordinary trek of Ewart "the Leopard" Grogan—the legendary British explorer who, in order to win the woman he loved, attempted to become the first person to cross Africa In 1898 the dashing British adventurer Ewart Grogan fell head-over-heels in love—but before he could marry, he needed the approval of his beloved's skeptical, aristocratic stepfather. Grogan, seeking to prove his worth and earn his love's hand, then set out on an epic quest to become the first man to cross the entire length of Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo, "a feat hitherto thought by many explorers to be impossible" (New York Times). A little more than a century later, American journalist Julian Smith also found himself madly in love with his girlfriend of seven years... but he was terrified by the prospect of marraige. Inspired by Grogan's story, which he discovered by chance, Smith decided to face his fears of commitment by retracing the explorer's amazing—but now forgotten—4,500-mile journey for love and glory through Africa. Crossing the Heart of Africa is the unforgettable account of these twin adventures, as Smith beautifully ineterweaves his own contemporary journey with Grogan's larger-than-life tale of cannibal attacks, charging elephants, deadly jungles, and romantic triumph. SOCIETY OF AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITERS WESTERN WRITING AWARDS WINNER: GOLD PRIZE (TRAVEL) BANFF MOUNTAIN BOOK COMPETITION WINNER: SPECIAL JURY MENTION AMERICAN SOCIETY OF JOURNALISTS AND AUTHORS AWARDS BEST-BOOK WINNER: MEMOIR

Crazy River

Author: Richard Grant
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439157642
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Dispatches From Pluto and Deepest South of All comes a rollicking travelogue from East Africa. NO ONE TRAVELS QUITE LIKE RICHARD GRANT and, really, no one should. In his last book, the adventure classic God’s Middle Finger, he narrowly escaped death in Mexico’s lawless Sierra Madre. Now, Grant has plunged with his trademark recklessness, wit, and curiosity into East Africa. Setting out to make the first descent of an unexplored river in Tanzania, he gets waylaid in Zanzibar by thieves, whores, and a charismatic former golf pro before crossing the Indian Ocean in a rickety cargo boat. And then the real adventure begins. Known to local tribes as “the river of bad spirits,” the Malagarasi River is a daunting adversary even with a heavily armed Tanzanian crew as travel companions. Dodging bullets, hippos, and crocodiles, Grant finally emerges in war-torn Burundi, where he befriends some ethnic street gangsters and trails a notorious man-eating crocodile known as Gustave. He concludes his journey by interviewing the dictatorial president of Rwanda and visiting the true source of the Nile. Gripping, illuminating, sometimes harrowing, often hilarious, Crazy River is a brilliantly rendered account of a modern-day exploration of Africa, and the unraveling of Grant’s peeled, battered mind as he tries to take it all in.

Native Stranger

Author: Eddy L. Harris
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9780679742326
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
When Eddy Harris went to Africa, he ended up learning a great deal about his own identity as a black American as well as witnessing both the splendor and squalor of the continent. From encounters with beggars and bureaucrats to a visit to Soweto and a hellish night in a Liberian jail, Harris evokes Africa with candor and vividness.

Djoliba Crossing

Author: Dave Kobrenski
Publisher: Artemisia Books
ISBN: 0982668996
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Book Description
Take a journey into the heart of West Africa... Artist, musician, and author Dave Kobrenski takes the reader on a musical and visual journey up the Djoliba river in Guinea to explore ancient music traditions, as well as to understand the challenges that face a country "balancing between the world of its ancient traditions and the frontier of modern ideals and influences." Dozens of original paintings and drawings accompany vivid first-hand accounts of the music, culture, and people of Guinea, while scores of rhythm notations make this a unique and valuable resource for musicians, educators, and travel enthusiasts alike. From the author's preface: "Part travelogue, part sketchbook, this is a book about glimpsing in the everyday dust of existence the potential for rich and meaningful expressions of being in the world; of seeing that beyond the tattered common cloth of life hangs a veil of mystery infused with magic and wonder."

Crossing the Stream

Author: Elizabeth-Irene Baitie
Publisher: WW Norton
ISBN: 1324017104
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
"A powerful coming-of-age story of self-discovery and overcoming fear.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review Ato hasn’t visited his grandmother’s house since he was seven. He’s heard the rumors that she’s a witch, and his mother has told him he must never sit on the old couch on her porch. Now here he is, on that exact couch, with a strange-looking drink his grandmother has given him, wondering if the rumors are true. What’s more, there’s a freshly dug hole in her yard that Ato suspects may be a grave meant for him. Meanwhile at school, Ato and his friends have entered a competition to win entry to Nnoma, the island bird sanctuary that Ato’s father helped created. But something is poisoning the community garden where their project is housed, and Ato sets out to track down the culprit. In doing so, he brings his estranged mother and grandmother back together, and begins healing the wounds left on the family by his father’s death years before. And that hole in the yard? It is a grave, but not for the purpose Ato feared, and its use brings a tender, celebratory ending to this deeply felt and universal story of healing and love from one of Ghana’s most admired children’s book authors.

To the Moon and Timbuktu

Author: Nina Sovich
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544025954
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Book Description
Documents the author's journeys through Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, discussing the inspiration for her travels, the women who adopted her into their ranks, and her discoveries about the region's forgotten areas and future promise.

Blood River

Author: Tim Butcher
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0099494280
Category : Congo (Democratic Republic)
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description
'Blood River' is a readable account of an African country now virtually inaccessible to the outside world and what is perhaps one of the most daring and adventurous journeys a journalist has made.

The Heart of Africa

Author: Georg August Schweinfurth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa, Central
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
Schweinfurth was a German botanist and ethnologist, sent in 1868 by the Humboldt-Stiftung of Berlin on "an important scientific mission to the interior of East Africa." He travelled from Khartoum up the White Nile to Bahr-el-Ghazal and then through the regions inhabited by the Diur, Dinka, Bongo and Niam-Niam peoples; "crossing the Congo-Nile watershed he entered the country of the Mangbetu ... and discovered the river Uele ... which by its westward flow he knew was independent of the Nile." This discovery was "his greatest geographical achievement." He also did much to elucidate the hydrography of the Bahr-el-Ghazal system. "Of greater importance were the very considerable additions he made to the knowledge of the inhabitants and of the flora and fauna of Central Africa. He described in detail the cannibalistic practices of the Mangbetu, and his discovery of the pygmy Akka settled conclusively the question as to the existence of dwarf races in tropical Africa." --Wikipedia.

Crossing the Sands

Author: Ariane Audouin-Dubreuil
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781854432223
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description

The Heart of Africa

Author: Georg August Schweinfurth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa, Central
Languages : en
Pages : 568

Book Description