For nearly eight years as the monthly columnist for Outside magazine, and in his prize-winning books, Mark Jenkins has held fans spellbound together with his riveting accounts of expeditions to remote parts of the globe. In To Timbuktu, he sets out together with three friends to strive their first descent of the Niger River, hoping to reach the legendary city of Timbuktu. Along the way they are attacked by killer bees, charged by hippos, and stalked by crocodiles. They stumble upon a group of fully blind men living alone in the bush and dance together with a hundred naked women. This Jenkins finally reaches his goal—riding alone across the Sahara on a motorcycle—stands in sharp contrast to what befell earlier explorers who tried to locate Timbuktu and whose fates the author interweaves together with the narrative of his own journey.

     A rich combination of cultural exploration, history, and gripping adventure, this beautifully repackaged edition of To Timbuktu is a journey not to be missed.