Canoeing the Congo shortlisted for the 2012 Banff Mountain Book Competition!
Canoeing the Congo by Phil Harwood was shortlisted in the Adventure Travel category, along with only four other books, for the 2012 Banff Mountain Book Competition.
The annual Banff Mountain Book Competition is an internationally recognised literary competition, celebrating its 19th year running. 125 books were submitted for 2012, and only 17 were shortlisted overall. As well as being a contender for best Adventure Travel book, the book also stood to win the prize for best book overall.
Canoeing the Congo narrates the journey of Phil Harwood, who undertook an epic five-month solo attempt to canoe the Congo River in war-torn Central Africa. It was a historic 'first descent' from the true source in the highlands of Zambia. Just short of 3,000 miles long, the Congo River is the eighth longest in the world and the deepest river in the world, with a flow rate second only to the Amazon. Along the way, Phil encountered numerous waterfalls, huge rapids, man-eating crocodiles, hippos, aggressive snakes and spiders’ webs the size of houses. He faced endemic corruption, was arrested, intimidated, bullied, chased and he received numerous death threats. He also collapsed from malaria.
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