ACROSS THE LIMPOPO: A Family's Hazardous Journey Through Africa

by Michael Nicholson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1986

A travelogue of a family's six-month journey from southern Africa north to Egypt in a Range Rover carrying all their possessions. For some four years, Nicholson had worked for Britain's ITN television network in southern Africa until Robert Mugabe's coalition took over, turning Rhodesia into Zimbabwe. Nicholson was recalled ""to leave Africa for grey English drizzle, and winters that spread from September to May."" Deciding that, ""after so many splendid years in Africa, we simply couldn't leave one evening and wake up for breakfast in London the next morning,"" Nicholson took his wife and their two young sons and began the 14,000-mile journey through revolutions, tribal conflicts, muddy roads, and jungle dangers. Their route took them from Capetown through Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, the Sudan, and Egypt. Along the way, they passed through and described the history and beauty of such places as Victoria Falls, Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti, a stop for a photograph on the Equator in Kenya, Khartoum, and a sentimental stop at El Alamein. The ""hazardous"" nature of the journey is more often than not of a vehicular sort, although on occasion the family narrowly avoided tribal raiders or rebels who had murdered other foreigners. Nevertheless, one can understand why such a trip would take six months by just reading the description of the Nicholsons' attempts to negotiate the famed Ngorongoro Crater. An interesting twist to an already crowded literature.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Parkwest (P.O. Box A-10, Cathedral Station, New York, NY 10025)

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION