Cameroon with Egbert

I basically have one requirement of travel writers — that they spend more time talking to the locals than describing the scenery and chatting to expats and fellow-tourists. Murphy kills it, digging up interesting stories wherever she, her 18 year old daughter and their pack horse Egbert wander, despite frequent language barriers. The three of them are indefatigable, routinely covering twenty miles a day through unforgiving terrain and surviving on bananas, mangos, gallons of local beer and the wheat dumplings and vegetable mash served up by the hospitable locals with whom they lodge when not sleeping in some pestilent thicket. Murphy’s prose is equally energetic, always on the move yet keeping up a steady supply of elegant images show more and sarcastic quips often arising from her inevitable misgendering and resigned breast-baring to set the record straight. Adventure of the first order, topped by the twosome’s (I won’t give away how they go from three to two) inadvertent visit to the ghost town of Nyos, depopulated eight months before when the local lake emitted a cloud of noxious gases killing approximately 2,000. Now I suppose I’ll have to go and read all her other books. show less

An entertaining and very readable account of Dervla Murphy's journey in 1987 through Cameroon, with her daughter and Egbert, a pack horse. As usual, her humour and determination come through as she travels and describes the places and the people.

Accounts of travels in one of the more prosperous nations of sub-saharan africa (PCI @ $1500). Why can't other countries in the region have rulers like this.

Accounts of travels in one of the more prosperous nations of sub-saharan africa (PCI @ $1500). Why can't other countries in the region have rulers like this.