This book fascinated me from first page to last. Here is the true story of the humiliating start of a young explorer, who did all the wrong things and broke all the rules, but who -- at 18 -- was man enough to take his punishment and start again and learn how to be an explorer in every sense. There's adventure and scientific knowledge and mystery and romance -- and Waldeck knows how to tell his personal story and to share his experiences and to get over this slant on the career of an explorer. Grand reading for anyone who likes African treks as armchair adventure.