Facing the Congo

In search of direction, Jeffrey Talyer left a comfortable but unsatisfying existence in Moscow for a taste of adventure. Seduced by Victorian explorers' tales of derring-do, he decided to embark on an expidition to the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), deep in Africa's heart of darkness.Leaving the capital, Kinshasa, on a barge teeming with merchants, deckhands, prostitutes, families and fishermen, Tayler heads up the Congo river towards Kisangani, 1,100 miles away. Then, at the end of a journey which would have made a book in itself, the real test began - a descent of the river's longest navigable stretch in a hand-carved pirogue . . .