To Timbuktu

By Mark Jenkins

Book Overview

Twenty years ago, when the author and his best friend, Mike Moe, were eighteen years old, they lit out from Wyoming to explore the world. They washed up in Africa and without forethought or planning set off for the most remote place on earth they could imagine: Timbuktu. Stopped by disease and the desert, they never reached the fabled city. Nonetheless, that first journey taught them the meaning of travel - that to be en route is more important than to arrive, that where your body has been is secondary to where your heart has gone. Fifteen years later they return to Africa, determined to reach Timbuktu. But this time they will do so by water, attempting the first descent of the Niger River. Both men are now married, their wives pregnant, their lives irrevocably altered from their days of youth. With an intuitive African guide and two companions, they search for and find the source of the Niger River high in the mountains of Guinea. The river immediately bears them into the heart of Africa, the Dark Continent; they are attacked by African killer bees, charged by hippos, stalked by crocodiles, borne over waterfalls. They pass through villages where every female child has had a clitoridectomy; stumble upon a brotherhood of blind men living alone in the bush; dance by firelight with a hundred naked women. And yet even after successfully navigating the headwaters of the Niger, the author still has not reached the dream of his youth. He then buys a motorcycle, rides alone through the Sahara, and enters Timbuktu, the mythical city hidden in a sea of white sand. Throughout, the author interweaves the tales of his own journey with the stories of the early explorers who tried to reach Timbuktu, men of unconquerable will, vanity, and perseverance, who would die beheaded, speared, or eaten alive by illness

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688115853
• ISBN13: 9780688115852
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

BETWEEN STROKES

My Dad loved this book. For all the rivers he never paddled it surprised me. But after many years of carrying it from place to place I read it, and then I understood. It wasn't the water, the boats, or Timbuktu, it was simply the act of traveling. We had traveled a lot together and when he didn't go I always made it a point to call him en route. From the Champe De Elysse, a mountain meadow in Yosemite, wherever I was we kept in touch. Mark Jenkins is a veteran traveler and his wife, like my Dad gets the touch via postcard. She knows he'll go, and that they will miss each other, but they made a deal and it works for them so he goes. With descriptions that sometimes seem like poetry Mark draws us along on his trip to the mythical Timbuktu. But that's not the only trip we are on in this book. It is cleverly spliced with other trips from other times, some his, some from famous or almost famous others. The delight is to sift thru these ancillary tales and then drop back into the current tent, village, or boat. Of course we have to have traveling companions and our group is like most, sometimes adversarial, but mostly content to go with the flow, when there is flow, and it's not too...well, you get the picture. Amidst the companions come others to guide, to tote, to banter, to question. All showing up to play their part in the adventure. And like us all wishing it was them that was putting the boat together ready to sail off with the morning dew to places never seen by most but forever to be remembered by my Dad, Mark, his wife, and all those who helped and were touched along the way.

To Timbuktu has all that a travel book should

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.

A great mix of adventure and history

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.

Excellent Story Telling Abilities

I read the book in about 3 days, enjoyed it ... especially the way Mark throws in some previous African explorer history. You won't get any social redeeming values from reading this book, but it is light, good reading to pass time!

Wonderful West Africa adventure

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.