By Wildlife Legend and Chengdu Panda Ambassador Nigel Marven

Who were the first Europeans to paddle a native ‘dugout’ canoe down the mighty Congo River? There was a rumour in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) that two Belgians were doing just that when they were eaten by cannibals in 1989, but the voyage was, in fact, made by a couple of Englishmen – and they did not end up on a cannibal menu!

One of them, Sean McCarthy, has written a rip-roaring account of their journey. Sean of the Congo is a travel book I relished reading.

Before their adventure, Sean and his buddy Shaggy hadn’t set foot in Africa, let alone handled a dugout. With zero preparation and little planning, in the spirit that epitomises the English eccentric, they attempted an outrageously ambitious voyage down the immense Congo.

This entertaining warts-and-all account vividly describes the deprivations, diseases and hardships. I laughed out loud at Sean’s description of the effects of dysentery, and winced with a shared pain as wicked-sharp thorns ripped through his flesh.

Just getting to the point of dropping their dugout into the water was no mean feat. It involved a heart-stopping flight from London to Moscow, on to Nairobi in Kenya, then to Kigali in Rwanda, for a long overland trek to Kisangani in Zaire.

As with all good travelogues, Sean transports the reader to the humid tropics of Central Africa, sprinkling his story with top facts about the geography and history of this troubled region.

En route there are plenty of colourful characters, among them Ali Hassan, son of the richest man in Rwanda at the time; Goldthumb, a gold prospector; Cheesy, a shocking visa official; Mathew, a master of profanity; Halitosis, a dugout seller with dubious breath.

In the river at last and of course things don’t go to plan. On the banks of the Congo, the watching crowd erupt in gales of laughter as two hapless Englishmen, with no idea of how to manoeuvre a dugout, spin the craft in circles, getting nowhere fast. I hope you enjoy finding out what happened to Sean and Shaggy on the Congo as much I did! And the end is as surprising as it is tasty.