“Where are you going, Daddy? Where? To work? To Church? To the store?” His dad’s reply, which Antonson took for the god’s honest truth, was always the same: “I’m going to Timbuktu to get my hair cut.” So started Rick Antonson’s dream of having his hair trimmed in Timbuktu. After all, how far could it be?

This novel begins with Antonson, now a middle-aged business executive, wrestling with the decision to step away from his work, his home and his family to fulfil a lifelong dream. The leap from the known into the unknown was made even more difficult as we wanted to make the journey the hard way.

His wry humour and shrewd observations litter the pages, painting his encounters with everyday Africans along the long path to Timbuktu with more colours than I could have hoped for. And his years of reading while pining for African adventure enables his story to travel more deeply into the psyche of the nations he visits, delving into everything from ancient legends to the feats of 19th-century explorers.

This is not a story written to glorify a modest, modern adventure – it is about closing old doors and opening new ones. As Antonson says, “It was the journey I needed, if not the one I envisioned. And I learned that there’s a little of Timbuktu in every traveller: the over-anticipated experience, the clash of dreams with reality.”

In the Bushveld and Desert: A Game Ranger’s Life
Christiaan Bakkes, 2008, Human & Rousseau, soft cover, 296 pages, ZAR175
In 1994 Christiaan Bakkes, a young game ranger in Kruger, had his life turned upside down by losing an arm to two crocodiles in the national park. After he recovered in 1996, he travelled through Africa for five months, worked for the WWF in the Namibia’s Kaokoveld region for three years and then joined a safari company conducting eco-tours, first at the Skeleton Coast and now also in Damaraland.

For him, his tragic accident was caused by his recklessness and an insatiable lust for adventure. Writing about this experience led to a unique writer’s voice being born – some now call him South Africa’s Hemingway. He is undoubtedly a superb writer and raconteur, not only bringing readers into the heart of his story, but into his own as well.

He’s previously published three collections of wilderness stories, as well as two novels. This, his latest book and his first in English, is a fascinating account of his life in several wilderness areas of southern Africa.  

Spirit of the Wild
Steve Bloom, 2008, Thames & Hudson, hardback, 128 pages, £9.99
Steve Bloom says that his photographic approach has always been intentionally artistic rather than scientific, as he believes cameras can speak their own alternative languages. Yet in this new compact version of Spirit of the Wild, he doesn’t let his photographs speak for themselves, juxtaposing them with inspirational quotes and anecdotes. Why? He is trying to tackle a problem that has its solution rooted both in emotion and in science.

During his travels around the globe he’s realised the alarming rate at which environment destruction is accelerating, and he’s overcome with a sense of urgency and foreboding. The goal of the book’s images and text is to try and convey the spirit that lives within wildlife, allowing his readers to connect with these animals and gain a wider intuitive awareness of the world around them.

The book may be small, but it packs a large punch.

Other new books to enjoy this quarter include:

• Travels in the Interior of Africa by Mungo Park (JB Publishing, £8.99). Part of JB Publishing’s Stanfords Travel Classics, this is epic travel writing of a grand scale.

• The Lonely Planet Story by Tony and Maureen Wheeler Crimson, £9.99) Learn the grassroots story behind the founding of the world’s largest independent travel publisher.

• Kampala by Rebke Klokke (www.arebkeoriginal) This book of photography manages to capture the textures, both large and small, of this vibrant city.