World Hum | Travel | No. 28: “Facing the Congo” by Jeffrey Tayler

Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

How Bad is the Violence in Mexico?

Tony Horwitz Blogs From the Road

The International Banana Club: One Appealing Museum

France Mulls Breathalyzers at Late-Night Bars

Tony Horwitz: Rediscovering the New World

Ben Keene talks to the author of the new book “A Voyage Long and Strange” about travel, American myths and the importance of visiting places where “history happened”

In Patagonia, In Patagonia

Tim Patterson packs his fleece and long underwear, and enters the Twilight Zone where corporate branding meets the multilayered reality of place.

Should I Quit Law School so I can Travel the World?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

�The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever�?

Lonely Planet author Robert Reid reviews Thomas Kohnstamm’s “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?” and weighs in on the controversy surrounding it

Have a Hockey Night in Canada

From Montreal to Sault Ste. Marie, the sport is the country’s greatest passion. Eva Holland explains where to go to indulge—and who you need to know.

Promised Land Closed

And other odd and unlikely signs from around the world. Aficionado Doug Lansky, editor of the book “Signspotting,” recounts his 10 favorites.

10 Sizzling Hot Travel Tips From Sir Francis Bacon

Rolf Potts repackages the 17th century philosopher’s ‘Of Travel’ essay in the manner of a 21st century magazine feature

TRAVEL BLOG

5.4.06

No. 28: “Facing the Congo” by Jeffrey Tayler

To mark our five-year anniversary, we�re counting down the top 30 travel books of all time, adding a new title each day this month.
Published: 2000
Territory covered: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa
Though “adventure” travel writing has come to the point where it often blurs with extreme sports coverage, Tayler’s chronicle of his 1995 pirogue trip down the Congo River proves that the most engrossing adventure tales don’t involve corporate sponsors and television crews. Frustrated with a dead-end life as a Moscow-based expatriate, the author travels to what was then Zaire to re-create British explorer Henry Stanley�s trip down the legendary Central African river in a dugout canoe. Tayler’s underlying impetus for the journey is to find meaning in his life by testing its limits—which proves to be no problem, as the author continually faces smothering heat, corrupt soldiers, lawlessness, hunger, swarms of insects, and a creeping sense of fear. Though Tayler occasionally illuminates moments of natural beauty, he never glosses over the reality of his journey, which is marked by an uncertain relationship with his guide, Desi, and ongoing suspicion from locals who, perhaps understandably, can’t understand why an outsider would want to submit himself to such a dangerous adventure. Drawn into Tayler’s heart of darkness, the reader feels the dread (and slaps at the mosquitoes) as the harrowing journey plays out.

Outtake from Facing the Congo:

We had bivouacked early in a malodorous and desolate bight of palm and rubber vines. Biting ants, fat and black, infested our camp. Scuttling over our legs, chomping away before we could scrape them off, and we had to seek refuge from them in our tents. . . The banks were uninhabited and the absence of hostile locals set me at ease, but I grew certain that we were somewhere on the river we should not be. Desi insisted he knew the way, but I was beginning to see he did not, this far from his home.

For more about Jeffrey Tayler, check out interviews with him by Rolf Potts, Jim Benning and John Coyne.

�Rolf Potts writes the Ask Rolf column and is the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel. His last story for World Hum was The Art of Writing a Story About Walking Across Andorra.

Posted by Rolf Potts • 5.4.06
Categories: Weblog • Top 30 Travel Books

Permalink • Comments (4)

COMMENTS

Facing the Congo is an exceptional book. I read the book after returning from my trip to Southern Sudan in 2003. I promptly wanted to head back-- this time to the Congo. Tayler is a eloquent writer who offers remarkable insight into his personal journey and captures the formidable and unending lure that Africa has for those who travel there.

By Wendy Knight on 5.4.06 at 10:11 AM

Tayler’s book pairs well with Redmond O’Hanlon’s “No Mercy. O’Hanlon covered some of the same territory about five years earlier, but he’s a much different writer on a much different mission. I think both books are excellent. It’s great to see such fine writing about contemporary Africa. We need more of it.

By on 5.4.06 at 11:09 AM

Tayler does an excellent job of taking the reader along AND communicating the significance of the details he selects. I haven’t read Facing the Congo, but his Angry Wind and Glory in a Camel’s Eye are among my personal faves, and I don’t have that many.

By on 5.4.06 at 11:11 AM

Actually, anything by O’Hanlon is worth checking out. If you want to read a really different (and personal) perspective on Middle-Eastern travel, check out Freya Stark’s writings, from the 1920s or so. (The more things change, the more they stay the same, in many respects.)

By Mollie Foti on 5.5.06 at 08:51 AM