To Timbuktu [Hardcover]

Mark Jenkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1997

Traveling with Mark Jenkins is a mixture of the daring and the dangerous, the dramatic and the absurd. Here, he and three friends, with the aid of a remarkably intuitive African guide, set out to attempt the first descent of the Niger River, the legendary city of Timbuktu their final goal. Along the way, they are attacked by killer bees, charged by hippos, stalked by crocodiles. They pass through villages where every female child has undergone a clitorectomy, stumble upon a group of completely blind men living in the bush, dance with a hundred naked women. That Jenkins reaches his goal, riding alone across the Sahara on a motorcycle, stands in sharp contrast to what befell those who first tried to find Timbuktu and whose fates the author interweaves with the narrative of his own adventures.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The Niger River in West Africa is 2500 miles long?longer than the Danube or the Volga. Jenkins, a writer for Backpacker who ran the Niger from its source to Timbuktu, offers here a first-person account of his journey. Starting from the source, he and a close friend and acquaintances kayak past crocodiles, hippos, and somnolent villages as they go from jungle to desert. The look at village life forms the most intriguing part of the book. Jenkins weaves in vignettes of early explorations of West Africa that are of some interest but might better have been used to offer more information about the people and places along the Niger. Still, he has spun an excellent travel yarn about an area little considered in the West. Recommended for public libraries.?David Schau, Kanawha Cty. P.L., Charleston, W. Va.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Jenkins and his buddy, Mike, outdoorsmen and explorers from Wyoming with wanderlust in their blood, leave their wives back in the States (six months pregnant) for West Africa and the Niger River. With two companions, they set out to kayak from the source of the river to the sea, a feat never before accomplished; they intend to be guided by the specter and myth of Timbukto. Interweaving his tale with the adventures of Mungo Park, Rene Caillie, and other explorers who paved the way, Jenkins portrays himself as a modern-day adventurer on a rapidly domesticated planet, a Zen Hemingway--macho yet sensitive, respectful yet indignant. He feels guilty about leaving his wife back home but is not willing to shorten his trip; he argues with a distinguished African chief regarding the ancient ritual of female circumcision. "Destiny is the coincidence of the random with the inevitable," he writes, waxing poetic with that familiar brand of road wisdom and traveler's koans. Jenkins evocatively conjures encounters with bees, crocodiles, hippos, waterfalls, corrupt officials, mercenaries, and soldiers. Benjamin Segedin

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688115853
• ISBN-13: 978-0688115852
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #922,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Travel > Africa > Western Africa: Mali, Mauritania & Western Sahara
  • #19 in Books > Travel > Africa > Niger & Nigeria
  • #39 in Books > Travel > Africa > Coastal West Africa

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great mix of adventure and history, March 21, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (State College, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Timbuktu (Hardcover)

I have read the book twice in the past year and enjoyed it both times. With 3 different storylines (doing the Niger River source to sea, a boyhood trip to Europe and Africa, and the history of European attempts to understand the Niger and visit Timbuktu) this book is a joy to read. You experience the trip and the mental thoughts that go through the author's head, as well as some of the philosophical issues that are encountered in the trip (guns, pregnant wives, etc). My recommendation: Buy it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To Timbuktu has all that a travel book should, December 23, 2000

By 

"flashindc" - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Timbuktu (Paperback)

To Timbuktu combines the three things necessary for a great travel book: adventure, history, and humor. The central theme of the book is Jenkins search for the source of the Niger River, but that is merely the rack from which Jenkins explores issues such as friendship, humanity, and cultural differences. That said this book is not dense or slow. In fact it is an extremely quick read. Jenkins writing is sometimes boastful and sometimes self-effacing, but always efficient and entertaining.

Some people here have criticized the "machoism" in this book. Maybe I fail to understand, but if they have problems with him carrying a gun or dancing with "100 naked women", I submit that their criticisms are quibblesome. Carrying a gun may or may not be necessary, but it is beyond a minor part in the book. As for the naked women, my question is: Is it true? If so, why not write it. At heart though, these criticisms miss the greater part of the book which is the interaction between people (Jenkins w/ his fellow travelers, the travelers w/ their guide, previous explorers w/ the indigenous population). It is here where To Timbuktu shines.

If their criticism goes deeper then I believe that they fail to understand what travel literature is all about. It is about the quest. The quest to do something you are not quite sure that you can accomplish. The quest to learn about those different than you. If this is "machoism" I hope it lives in us all. To criticize it is to deny the validity of all grasps for greater knowledge about ourself and others. Maybe these people would rather read about my travels from refrigerator to couch to restroom to bed, but I don't think that would make a very interesting travelogue and, while it may be revealing about me, I doubt that it would tell us much about the diverse peoples of the world.

Getting off my soapbox, I can sum up, in short, by saying that this book turned me into a connoisseur of travel literature and I am thankful for the experience.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful West Africa adventure, October 14, 1998

By 

Blake Patterson ([e-mail]) (Rumson, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Timbuktu (Hardcover)

I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria, 1963-65. Jenkin's adventure along the Niger (before it reaches Nigeria) reminds me very much of those two years. I was never as adventurous as Mr. Jenkins and friends, but the highs and lows of his trip echo my modest African travel. Nigeria is now a dangerous place to visit, and Jenkins fleetingly encounters similar West African threats. He finds a formerly prosperous town in decay, also a Nigeria problem. He also meets wonderful, helpful Africans, as I did. The book interleaves three stories: the struggles of early Europeans to reach Timbuktu; post-high-school adventures of Jenkins and friend Mike in Europe and North Africa; their recent trek to the Niger's headwaters and kayak trip along some of it. I would never attempt the trip Jenkins took, but I'm glad he did and told me about it. The color photos are great; I'd like more. I enjoyed To Timbuktu so much I re-read it immediately, something I've not done before. I recommended it to all my Peace Corps cronies and bought copies for friends. It may appeal most to "guys," because it is about our occasional need for adventure, and to people who've visited West Africa.