Customer Reviews

One Dry Season: In the Footsteps of Mary Kingsley

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

. This lovely travel memoir pays homage to a little-remembered remarkable Victorian woman named Mary Kingsley who explored the wilds of West Africa at the end of the 1900s. Alexander was determined to retrace the steps of the journey made by Kingsley in 1895 which Kingsley chronicled in her best-selling book "Travels in West Africa". In many ways, the territory covered by Kingsley and Alexander has seen little change in 100 years. From Libreville, Gabon's capital, on the Atlantic coast, Alexander followed Kingsley's trail, encountering the same mud-hut villages, the same stretches of waterway, rain forest and empty savannah. With pluck and determination, Alexander recreates Kingsley's adventures on the Ogooue River, shooting rapids and maneuvering through dangerous waters. Alexander is struck by how such journeys affect a traveler psychologically. "Extended travel in countries very different from one's own demands an ongoing suspension of one's personality. There is often no scope or no point, for example, in asserting preferences in matters as basic as food, shelter, and the ocmpany one keeps, and it is often beyond one's powers to direct one's own itinerary." Alexander manages to invoke Kingsley's spirit without cannibalizing Kingsley's experiences. Alexander is determined to quote sparingly from Kingsley's books so that the reader can discover them for herself. This is a fascinating introduction to a mysterious and compelling place as well as to two adventurous women.

This is like 3 books for the price of one: You get Mary Kingsley's original canoe trip in 1897. You get Caroline Alexander's copycat trip almost 100 years later. And you get the journey through Alexander's keen mind, which produced a truckload of fine writing that appeals to everyone with an ounce of intelligence.

I know that Ms. Alexander is champion swimmer, too. I wish her book had included the scene where she outswam the 15-foot crocodile that was about to gobble her up; it chased after her for 3 miles before giving up. Impressive!