Book Club Associates, 1994, Hardback in dust wrapper.
Illustrated by way of: Colour Photographs; Maps; Tables;
From the cover: "On 2 April 1991, accompanied by a back-up team she had met only days before, 24-year-old Ffyona Campbell waved goodbye to the cheering crowds in Cape Town and started walking north.
Ahead lay 10,000 miles of some of the harshest, loneliest, most inhospitable wilderness on earth, along a route that could not be predetermined because so many countries were torn by war. But Ffyona was undeterred: 'If you don't know how bad it can get, you always think tomorrow will be better'. As she left the city she reassured herself with the words: 'Don't be frightened, Fi — you're just going for a walk'.
The Guinness Book of Records requires a round-the-world overland record to start and finish in the same place, cross four continents and total at least 16,500 miles. Ffyona's TransWorld Walk had begun when she was 16; she walked the 1,000 miles from John O'Groats to Land's End in 49 days. Two years later she walked across America from New York to Los Angeles, a total of 3,500 miles in 151 days. Australia was next: 3,200 miles from Sydney to Perth in 95 days — a new record.
Now Africa. Walking for 31 miles a day for 2 years, she traversed rainforest, jungle, desert and, once, a 400-mile-wide minefield. She encountered bush fires, rogue lions, poachers, bandits, pygmies and cannibals.
In remoter regions, Ffyona was the first white person the locals had seen since the days of slavery. Thinking she was the mamawata spirit who used to steal children, some left fruit and vegetables by the roadside to appease her; others attacked. Trapped by riots in Zaire, the team had to be evacuated by the French Foreign Legion. But the walk resumed, and so did the abuse: in a particularly vicious assault in Morocco that left her battered and bleeding, her assailant tried to rape her.
But finally, on 1 September 1993, Ffyona Campbell arrived in Morocco and ran headlong into the Mediterranean Sea, her arms raised high in a gesture of triumph that was captured on front pages around the world.
Her extraordinary odyssey had been an unforgettable drama of the triumph of the human will against almost overwhelming physical and political odds. It had been a story, too, of personal discovery, of high adventure, and of deep concern for the future of a beautiful, yet terrifying, landscape.
On foot through Africa is her gripping account of that astonishing journey, candidly revealing what really went on behind the scenes, vividly recounting the physical and psychological stresses, the disasters narrowly avoided, the victories hard won. Drawing exclusively on her contemporary journals and illustrated with breathtaking photographs of Africa at its most awesome, it is a candid chronicle of one of the most enthralling expeditions of our time."
Very Good+ - in Very Good+ DJ. Slightly bruised at the head of the spine otherwise a very well presented copy.
Red boards with Silver titling to the Spine.
[X] 349 pages. 9½" x 6¼".
This book will be listed, sooner or later, for £6.50 on my delightful website... (added to my Biography category.) but get 50% off buying from my blog... below...
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