Overview

This account of a journey for which few predicted a happy outcome before or after it began – with struggles through unforgiving terrain, close encounters with hostile animals, and a disastrous camp fire – has turned out to be not only a full-on survival story but also a rare time-capsule of life in Central Africa in the early era of independence. The author shares his enjoyment of a rich variety of people encountered, from astonished children first seeing white faces to great-grandparents with family memories of Victorian explorers. A fed-up city-dweller’s idea of retracing on foot Stanley’s 1,200-mile expedition of 1871 originated in his boyhood reading of the American explorer’s classic account. Stanley’s team had been nearly 200 men; George Tardios’s for his equally historic expedition was himself, his wife and a young friend. With eight pages of photographic illustrations, this diary-based account of a journey accomplished 40 years ago has had to await the author’s thorough physical and mental recovery from it, further years earning a living in Tanzania, and self-reinvention in a changed England.

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9781836282570

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Reviews

''A truly extraordinary narrative, of a journey of prodigious enterprise and endurance. Over more than a thousand miles into the heart of Africa, this tiny expedition survived fearsome terrain, predatory animals, racking disease and a near-disastrous bush fire, to end in astonishing triumph."" -- Colin Thubron, Travel writer

Author Information

George Tardios was born in London of Greek Cypriot parents. After working as a further education lecturer in English he became something of a rolling stone, with intermittent periods of working in night clubs, at the same time acquiring a number of practical skills, including horse-riding, kayaking, karate, fell-walking and rock-climbing. After his African expedition he continued to lead an adventurous life. Extensive travels included escape from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand; he trained as an actor and worked in films; he had two books of poems published. He died at his home in London in 2024 aged 79.

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