cover image Travels with Pegasus: A Microlight Journey Across West Africa

Travels with Pegasus: A Microlight Journey Across West Africa

Christina Dodwell. Walker & Company, $19.95 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-1125-0

In her latest adventure, Dodwell ( Traveller on Horseback ) takes to the air in an ultra-light plane called Pegasus for a trip through West Africa. Normally a solo traveler, she was accompanied this time by David Young, pilot, mechanic and flight instructor. They traveled to the rain forests of Cameroon, then north to Lake Chad; through northern Nigeria across the desert, to the remote mountains of Niger; then to Mali, Mauritania and, finally, to the Atlantic beaches of Senegal. Wherever they landed--for fuel caches or repairs to the aircraft--Dodwell set out on solitary exploration by foot, motorcycle, canoe or horseback. She discovered dinosaur bones in Niger, attended a festival in Mali, visited pygmy villages and Tuareg encampments. The author's lively curiosity, her empathy with people of other cultures and her interest in out-of-the-way places make her travels a treat for vicarious adventurers. (Nov.)