HIGH STREET, AFRICA By • Captain 41, Birch , Reynardson "The
last of old Africa is going—the old Africa of the spear aii of the dark forest . . . of ignorance and cruelty and !' ...Scion, no doubt, high roads will link up every quarter of the. continent, and, that will be the end. So, before it was too late, the author of this excellent book of travel (Blackwood, 12s. fid.) decided to make a leisurely trip of exploration. The party consisted Of "Capthin Reynardson and: his, family and several iends, and- they set off-in two cars from Cape_ Town,.. with Kenya as._their_objective : a journey of some seven thousand miles. There are roads of a sort all the way, but _it must he -ranked as _a considerable achievement to transport so large a party,- including two young children, across bushlaad and mountain where -it would have been -extremely difficult ta get assistance in the case of a serious hreakdown. CaPlaiii-Reynardson- has a pleasant 'Style —brief. to the point, and atnusing. -He discusses, in passing, some of the political -and racial problems of the country, but his book is mainly concerned with .recording just what they saw and just how they overcame their many domest' ic problems. They camped wherever they felt like it, to study wild animal life, or to fish, and 'occasionally when deep mud—the terror of African roads—held them up. One suspects that the author was frequently more- worried than his light-hearted way of describing accidents ,rniglit_lqid one to' Suppose. The traveller Wiwi minimises the 'dangers he has run is far from common, and the author is to be congratulated on having produced a wholly enjoyable book out of his journey.
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