Ashford and The Radio

Yesterday I travelled to Ashford to do a visit at PC World. It turned out to be another fine warm day and to reach the place I had to visit I partly walked the route from the town centre through South Willsborough towards the retail park. That part of the sprawling suburbia has a quaint village area with a decent watering hole for the thirsty trekker.

I got some screen wipes as proof of my visit to the shop, and then, after buying a sandwich from the adjacent Boots, walked back to catch the bus to central Ashford. Had some time to kill before my return journey to Faversham, so I popped into the library for half an hour, and then sat in the park smoking my pipe and reading a book.

Now I may be volunteering for SFM Radio as I have an informal interview Monday morning. I am not certain what capacity I would fill but I did intimate to them in my spec letter that I would like to DJ the music I love, specifically jazz soul and funk. I shall keep you informed on the outcome.

Book 56 - Tim Butcher "Blood River"

Tim Butcher "Blood River, A Journey Into Africa's Broken Heart" (Vintage)

 


When Tim Butcher became Africa's correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, he realised that it had been the same newpaper that had sent Henry Morton Stanley to chart the Congo River in the 1870s. The author's mother had also travelled through the Congo in 1958 and he had grown up with the souvenirs and pictures that his mother had taken gracing the walls of his childhood home. Despite being told that it couldn't be done and the impossible challenges and dangers he would face Tim became obsessed with trying to recreate Stanley's famous expedition.

He describes his journey as ordeal travel and even reading it isn't for the faint-hearted. His adventure is extraordinary and he also uses his journey through the Congo to tell the story of its history and its disturbing present.

More than anything, what stood out for me was that this is a country which is moving backwards. There had been modernity, but no longer. He encountered a grandfather who could remember tourists travelling around the country, but the motorbike that Tim was moving quickly through jungle tracks on was the first that his grandchildren had seen. The roads and infrastructure that had been there at independence are now eroded and swallowed up by jungle. The Congo is a vast country with enormous wealth in the form of natural resources, but there is no order. The safest place for so many people is to repeatedly flee into the jungle while all their belongings are destroyed by whichever rebel group.

This is a fascinating book and hugely readable