Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart - Tim Butcher

A number of people I've met on my travels have raved about this book, so I finally got around to borrowing it from the library. It's very good, but no better than many other travelogues I've read.

Blook River is Daily Telegraph journalist Tim Butcher's account of his 2004 attempt to follow in the footsteps of Stanley (of "Dr Livingstone I presume?" fame). Having managed to reach the Congo, we follow Tim Butcher as he travels 1000s of miles from Lake Tanganyika to the River Congo and downriver to Muanda where it deluges into the Atlantic Ocean. En route there are adventures - some more hair raising than others - and Tim Butcher's accounts of the history of the Congo, the men who 'discovered' and 'explored' it, and those men and women who manage to live in that failed state today.

Amazon.co.uk link: Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart - Tim Butcher