Travels in an Earlier Time – When Adventure Travel Truly was Adventurous

Book Title: Shots Across The Water – Tales of a Journey Through Africa

Author: Patrick Nash

Promotional Blurb: “Aged 22, Patrick Nash left his parents’ home in south London with a small rucksack, two UK passports and £250 in cash. His plan was to visit a friend in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Ten months later he returned, having walked and hitch-hiked on an extraordinary and often dangerous trip from Egypt south to Kenya, then through the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria – and back north across the Sahara Desert to reach Britain.

Along the way Nash experienced sandstorms in north Africa; witnessed famine, drought and a refugee crisis in southern Sudan; hitched with young Ugandan soldiers who had lost a military coup; was arrested and imprisoned in Niger; and was shot at by border guards when entering the Central African Republic in a dugout canoe. Along the way he slept on top of a volcano; stayed in villages; trekked through rainforests; journeyed a thousand miles simply to get a visa; and endured severe illness. But, above all, Nash encountered the interest, friendship and kindness of strangers.

At the time, few people walked and hitch-hiked overland through these African countries, but Nash’s travels may actually have coincided with one of the few times during the last century when such an epic journey was even consistent with official travel advice. It is certainly a journey that he would caution his children against doing today.

Nash’s journey set him up an interesting and successful career as a social entrepreneur, which was the subject of his first book, Creating Social Enterprise. As Nash gained confidence, he discovered how to get on with anyone, learned how to talk his way out of tricky situations and to trust his intuition. Most importantly of all, however, Nash discovered a strong set of social and environmental values that have infused everything he has done since.

Comprising tales of Nash’s journey across Africa, Shots Across the Water introduces us to the people he met, shares what he learned along the way, and offers insights about the countries he travelled through. This book will enchant anyone who has ever backpacked – or ever wanted to.” Source.

My Thoughts: I wish to flag at the very outset that this book was sent to me by the author after his publisher made contact through this blog. It was completely unexpected and I was a little bit chuffed to be offered a chance to read it fairly hot off the presses.

And who can resist an adventurous, sometimes hair-raising, travel story down, across and through deepest, darkest Africa? And there is a lot to like about this book, if not love.

First off, there are maps! And plenty of them. I’m not sure if you are a map fan, but I love reading a story and following its progress on a map with place names and geographic features highlighted. Not only does it give a sense of geographic perspective (which town etc is located where in relation to somewhere else), it also delivers a sense of movement as if I am walking/traveling with the author.

“We had climbed 11,381feet and looked down on an active volcano from the top of the crater. Nyiragongo had erupted many times… A major eruption in 2002 produced paths of lava… An estimated 300,000 people fled east to Rwanda, 245 died and some 120,000 lost their homes.”

Nash’s voice is authentic and honest. He may not be the World’s most skilled and flamboyant writer, but he captures the essence of what he is seeing and experiencing in such a way that you can almost picture it or hear the sounds, smell the spices or the lushness of the jungle.

I understand he used his original journals, much thumbed and weather-beaten no doubt, as the source material for this travelogue. Maybe it is these honest comments which generate his conversational and descriptive tone, almost like, “…did I ever tell you about the time in Zaire I…”.

“On the road there were butterflies of every colour possible, with clouds of them appearing as a lorry or car passed and even when I was walking. I’ve never seen so much colour. Many had wings like surrealist paintings, others that were like line drawings of clouds. This was some of the best walking of my whole journey…”

A strength of this book is the insight it gives you into travel in another era – even if it was only 40 years ago. Nash seemed to travel in rare periods of relative peace in Africa – either pre- or post- coup – or when there was a lull in fighting. I suspect this was more by good luck than good management, and how lucky was he?? Yes, he had his fair share of close shaves and scary moments, but he went places that are completely off-limits these days, unless you have a death wish!

“My heart rate had shot up and … took a while to calm down. I’d had a gun pointed at me on a few occasions, but I had never been shot at before. It was one of the many firsts on this journey and one I would prefer not to repeat.”

Yes, I have a serious case of travel envy. He went to places literally off-the-beaten track, but I also envy the way he travelled. Nash travelled with open eyes, open mind and open heart, and this allowed him to create genuine connections with the local people who, in turn, opened their homes to him. How privileged was he and, at the same time, how respectful was he?

Interestingly, he did not travel with a camera to record anything and everything. He makes the point that the lack of this device/equipment instantly eliminated any barriers between himself and the locals. I imagine we all can fall into the trap of seeing the World, and everything in it, through the small digital screen of our phones and cameras.

“As a white main from a wealthy country I was – and am – privileged compared to everyone I met on my journey. What I found was the more I travelled, ate and slept with the people I met, the less of a barrier there was that this privilege often creates.”

If you are a fan of African adventures or wished you could be sitting on the top of a great pile of hessian bags on an overloaded clapped-out truck on a rough dirt track in remotest Sudan, then this book is for you. It’s a good read and I gave it 7/10.

Author Bio: Aged 22, Patrick Nash walked and hitch-hiked through much of Africa. During the adventure, Nash discovered a strong set of social and environmental values that have infused everything he has done since. In 1980, he set up a workers’ cooperative selling vegetarian food, which became one of the UK’s largest cooperative businesses. He went on to have a 40-year career as a social entrepreneur working in ecological development and mental health in education before setting up a company that became the largest UK provider of charity helplines and one of the largest employers in one of the poorest parts of Wales. Patrick has won many business awards, lectures on social enterprise and, in 2023, wrote the book Creating Social Enterprise. Source.

Author Blog or Website: https://www.patricknash.co.uk/

Pages: 210

Publisher: JB Journey Books

Published In: 2024

Available from: Your favourite book store or Amazon, Bradt Guides

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