Customer Reviews

Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik: One Woman's Solo Misadventures Across Africa

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

When writing about Africa - a travel genre of its own these days - some approaches seem to be more popular than others. There is the lone adventurer routine - preferably with the hero in a 4WD or on a motorcycle, as in "Running with the Moon" by Johnny Bealby - where the author invariably finds himself stranded in the heart of darkness and somehow lives to tell. And there's the high-brow, intellectual approach - perhaps most famously executed by Paul Theroux in "Dark Star Safari" - whose literary prowess is matched only by his equally limitless gift for misanthropy and self-pity.

And then there's Marie Javins - a bona fide globetrotter whose obsession with overland travel made her zigzag the African continent in 2001 as part of a world tour, and as if that wasn't enough, then came back for more last year. Author of several tent camping guides and thus no stranger to roughing it a bit, Ms Javins succeeds in straddling both approaches and with "Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik" comes out as something of a thinking man's - or should that be woman's - heroine. Much like Theroux did, the author wants to show us that there is more to Africa than war and misery, and contrary to him she actually succeeds in doing so. With the narrative set against an engaging and at times heartbreaking story of a more personal nature, the author takes the reader on a thoroughly enjoyable journey into the labyrinth of people, animals and past that is Africa.

Greatly appreciated and warmly recommended.

Imagine the pleasure of opening your mailbox to find a whole stack of sequential letters from a friend traveling abroad: it would be impossible not to sit down and read them all at once. Marie Javins' writing is exactly like that. Possessing both talent and wit in abundance, Marie is the traveler most of us would like to be: fearless, easygoing, observant, and culturally wide-awake. Her writing is filled with easy, knowing humor, without the pretense of cleverness for cleverness' sake. Marie is at her best in this book portraying the boredom, fatigue, and frustration of travel in hot, dusty, crowded, and cramped trains, buses, and trucks as she makes her way across the African continent from Namibia to Egypt. Marie invites us to an Africa that is far from our popular imagination, yet even more intriguing - it should be mandatory reading for anyone considering travel there. Immersed, you feel like a familiar friend and travel companion as Marie shares her intimate thoughts and observations, and asks all the right questions about the people, diverse cultures, and animals she encounters. Her adventures and near-death experiences make for a thrilling read, and put to rest any fears that the great continent has been tamed.

Anyone who enjoys travel will enjoy this book - highly recommended.

The beauty of reading an account of a long overland journey is that you can live the experience through someone else, still enjoying your hot shower, comfy bed, and well-stocked pantry at home. Javins' book is one of those conversational, easy-reading tales that doesn't try to dazzle you with its erudite suppositions or try to make grand expositions on the nature of what's wrong with Africa. Instead there are just musings on impossible questions, such as "Should I be accepting personal responsibility for slavery, the price of coffee, and colonialism?"

The book mostly just goes for a long journey and takes you along for the ride: from Cape Town to Cairo via a meandering route up the east after heading through Botswana and Namibia. She admits that the first time she went to the continent it was just something to cross off a list: "Wash clothes. Buy toilet tissue. See Africa."

Javins' goal was to do it all without getting on a plane, as part of a round-the-world tour on the ground and water only. In the end she has to hop a flight from Sudan to Egypt to catch a freighter when, as expected, the schedule doesn't quite move as planned. The mishaps here are natural ones though, things that any traveler will encounter on the continent, with no scenes that make us feel as if the author was intentionally seeking out bad situations just to enliven the story. Of course the natural hurdles in Africa can be bad enough on their own. In this case it's a Namibian taxi driver who keeps nodding off at the wheel, a bus wreck in Ethiopia, and and enough scamster touts to fill a small city.

Despite the luxury camps and expensive safari trips Africa is known for, it is still a wild frontier for anyone trying to cross it by land and this book is a great way to figure out if you're up for it yourself. If you're not, you can ride along then go take a hot shower at home.

Therefore, I won't go into any detail here. Ms. Javins manages to balance the funny and serious sides of her experience just fine. It sounds trite for me to type this, but the book is both entertaining and educational. Looking forward to more of her books.

After having read about some of Marie's adventures on her blog, I expected to enjoy this book, and I was not disappointed. It's a fun story of the author's trip from South Africa to Egypt, by crowded bus, train, and overland truck. Along the way she goes on a wide variety of safaris, learns every con line in East Africa, and seems to get a good taste for life in Africa as she travels through. Although she had several bad experiences, Marie gives the story a humorous tone overall. There are a lot of details about each leg of the trip; I appreciated the political, historical, and cultural tidbits about the places she visits as well as her interactions with the people there. It gives the reader a feeling of being there and makes this reader, at least, want to visit some of the same places!

Travel writing has been dragged down for 20 years now by the curse of Bruce Chatwin wannabes on fake quests (pogo stick around Mt. Fuji, etc.), Marie's book is a throwback to when people actually went somewhere to see what the place was like, instead of what their own ideas of the place were like. She travels wide open to the people and the scenery, and has written one of the only honest books about Africa I've ever read. Isabella Bird would be proud.

Finished Marie Javins' Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik. Liked it in spite of myself, even though at first you think it is not that good. Then you realize that it IS good, really good. She is no Paul Theroux, nor is she trying to be. And that is all to her credit. She traveled up through Africa. He went Cairo to Capetown, she the reverse. Extremely different travels and travelers. She did things he would never be caught dead doing, like joining up with safari groups. As much as I liked his book a great deal, I liked hers as much precisely because she gives you all the personal and cultural detail out of the corner of her eyes. Her eyes are great. She complains a lot about things and yet that helps make us there with her. This IS what travel is like. She is good company. You would love to talk with her, meet her. A lot of people can complain and be terrible company. And she does not go back and rifle through books to flesh out her rants and observations. Rather she crisply and curtly describes the people and the hassles. And the tedium. Remarkable how well she writes about that. She is every bit as experienced as Theroux but not out to write a book. She is about moving along, seeing some things but not interested in making a big deal. She's not out to force grand ideas down our throats. As a result, her book conveys great vitality, the life of all those she meets. She did post her trip on an ongoing website, still up. So she got her immediate audience there. Big generational difference. Later when she wrote this book she had the site and the immediate responses and could draw on all that and recompose her narrative from that base. Her book is a sharp account of hard travels through Africa at the end of her year of touring the world & she writes with economy and clarity, & no sentimentality in spite of 9/11 happening in the middle of her trip when she is on the Muslim island of Zanzibar. And maybe her book will become after all a literary gem because of all of this. Ten times better than, say, Robin Davison's camel walk across Australia, Tracks. Better as a book. Javins can write. Davison cannot. Javins is mightily experienced at travel and this gives her a practical sense of scope and detail and perspective. She keeps it clipped and paced & you get a great sense of what this sort of trekking and traveling is like for the tough and sensitive souls who can do it. Reminds me so much of Tamminnee Taylor, the Australian young woman who traveled for over five years all over the world.

Marie Javins presents a clear, honest view of an overland journey across Africa (guess what, kids? Sometimes it ain't postcard perfect...). Throughout it all, her wry wit and wisdom keep the narrative spinning along deftly. "Dik-dik" is a striking and lovely book, one I recommend to my travel writing students and tourists alike. I've pushed this book on dozens of people now and have heard only raves back. Bravo, Ms Javins.

Really fun reading & also provides interesting historical backgrounds to the countries she goes through. It would be even better w/ more historical info, such as colonial powers & how these nations' boundaries were formed- a little lacking on details of Zimbabwe's precipitous fall off the tourist map.

I really enjoyed reading the story of this lady's adventure in Africa. I read this right before moving to Africa and although I will not be backpacking or roughing it around Africa like she did, I still found it very interesting. She covers a lot of different areas and has some great commentary. I should go back and read it after living here and see how much I agree with her. Fun read.