Travels with King Kong

The journey really began when John and I stepped off the ferry in Tangiers and suddenly found ourselves in a strange and exotic land. A few days later, we joined an overland expedition travelling from London to Nairobi in two vintage British Army vehicles, one of which was an old bus nicknamed "King Kong." Over the next five months, the expedition took us across the burning sands of the Sahara Desert, through the steaming jungles of the Congo, and eventually to the vast plains of East...
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The journey really began when John and I stepped off the ferry in Tangiers and suddenly found ourselves in a strange and exotic land. A few days later, we joined an overland expedition travelling from London to Nairobi in two vintage British Army vehicles, one of which was an old bus nicknamed "King Kong." Over the next five months, the expedition took us across the burning sands of the Sahara Desert, through the steaming jungles of the Congo, and eventually to the vast plains of East Africa. Along the way, King Kong suffered countless mechanical breakdowns, including two weeks stranded in the middle of the Sahara, when a valve dropped through one of the pistons in the engine two hundred miles from the nearest town. Throughout the journey there were unforgettable people and places that challenged our curiosity and emotions. There was the enjoyment of savoring fresh chocolate served on a banana leaf, shopping in the colorful village markets where everything from beetle nuts to insect larvae were for sale, a celebration for a new village chief in the heart of the Congo, camping below Stanley Falls, a fascinating encounter with the Pygmies in the Ituri Forest, the roar of lions in the night on the plains of East Africa, climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, and a hundred other special moments that I captured with my pen and camera. And somewhere along the way, between the desert and the jungle, I discovered an incredibly special person who would change my life forever - my wife to be! She was one of the members of the expedition, and over the course of several weeks, we became intimately involved. After reaching Nairobi, we spent a month together on the lovely island of Lamu in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya - a tropical paradise where our love grew even stronger. The memories of traveling overland across Africa have stayed with me ever since - truly the experience of a lifetime!