Crossing the Heart of Africa: An Odyssey of Love and Adventure by Julian Smith

"In 1898 the dashing young British explorer Ewart ''the Leopard'' Grogan was in love. In order to prove his mettle to his beloved - and her aristocratic stepfather - he set out on a quest to become the first person to walk across Africa, ''a feat hitherto thought by many explorers to be impossible'' (New York Times, 1900). 

In 2007 thirty-five-year-old American journalist Julian Smith faced a similar problem with his girlfriend of six years . . . and decided to address it in the same way Grogan had more than a hundred years before: he was going to retrace the Leopard's 4,500-mile journey for love and glory through the lakes, volcanoes, savannas, and crowded modern cities of Africa."*

I would recommend this book if you love the idea of exploring far off places you've never been to (or maybe that you have). The stories of the explorers are balanced well for being so far apart in time. It is fascinating to see how these areas that are traveled through change and what the men had to do to travel through them. The book has a lot of good history about in it that is worth reading and can be a nice starting point if you want to learn more about this period in time.

Kelsey Fitzgerald
Library Assistant

Available through the MVLC Catalog
* Crossing the Heart of Africa: An Odyssey of Love and Adventure - Goodreads