Into Africa, Sam Manicom

A book review by Mike Forrester
Editor and Scribbler motorcycle.co.uk




Its a Travel Book, a journey from Egypt to South Africa by the Eastern route.  Sam rides a BMW GS.  He takes a tent, seeks out cheap lodgings, even takes some work along the way.  Staying places whenever he feels like it, its a year-long trip, during which he learns to ride his bike, and love Africa.

We learn of different cultures, how one country is different from the next, a result of history or political jerry-mandering or rainfall or whatever the local issue is.  We hear about hoisting bikes 4 feet up onto rusty ship's decks.  About walking into the bush for a day because it seems like an interesting thing to do.

Same old same old, as the Americans say.  Jupiters Travels has been there, Mountains of the Moon covered the same ground, Long Way Down has been and got the T-Shirt.  So is this just another motorcycle travel book?

Yes, but the spin is different. Different because Sam tells it like it is. And some of it ain't pretty!  In the range of Motorcycle Travel Books out there, this one pulls no punches.  In the gritty bits, you can feel the grit.

But Sam savours it all, from the genuine hospitality to the highs of just being there, and he shows it all to us in a readable and engaging style.  All the time with the feeling of someone traveling over the surface, outside looking in, never really knowing.  You meet people, sometimes spending time, being intrigued but never really knowing.  Sam captures that very well, the stranger-in-a-foreign-land thing, and through his coming to understand, we also come to understand.



In the prologue, the author explains that he knows many of us will read this book vicariously - he has done it, so we don't have to.  And this reader smiles, a little patronised.  By the end of the book, it is more of a wry smile.  Yes, most of us could do that journey.  The question becomes would you want to?

I think my answer is still yes, but I'm now much better informed, thanks Sam.