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However, Bergeijk doesn't seem to do his own adventure justice. While I enjoyed this book overall, it was a bit "thin".The general story was entertaining. Personally, I'd have liked more of a day-to-day travelog. He doesn't go into much detail even on the handful of the more significant events he decides to highlight. Old cars are worth more in Africa than in Europe (& other 1st World countries) because of the difference in labor costs to keep them running. The author decides to buy a beater Mercedes in Amsterdam, then drive it across the Sahara and sell it in Africa at a profit.You get some sense of African cultures from reading the book, and a bit of a flavor for the trip.
If you're looking for a good West African travelogue, this is not it. If you took the author's own experience and removed all the filler about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or accounts of other travelers in West Africa then this book would be a short story at best. If you're looking for something slightly more than a news article about selling old cars in West Africa then maybe this book is for you. The author spends too much time recounting other stories instead of his own. He doesn't give the reader any sense of how mundane and long the distances are while driving through the Western Sahara and Mauritania.
Jeroen goes armed with the philosophy that the car is not just a machine or a means to an end as he relies on the influence of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. All-in-all, Jeroen gives a well done descriptive of the people he meets and events which take place. The well-read Jeroen gives history lessons on previous travellers into Africa and the hardships they dealt with in much tougher times. Dutch traveller turned writer Jeroen van Bergeijk has come across the seemingly lucrative idea and venture of purchasing a car, a 1988 Mercedes 190, in Holland and driving it to Sub-Saharan Africa for a larger amount of money. It's a well written travelogue and has made me seek out Captain James Riley's Sufferings in Africa: The Incredible True Story of a Shipwreck, Enslavement, and Survival on the Sahara. Through in the excessive need to supplement your journey with well received "gifts" to shady border guards, rude travellers, and the massive car graveyards/parts suppling locals. He must deal with the hardships of travelling through third-world countries which are more often than not in the midst of civil wars. He also presents the kindness in the face of hardships of many of the locals.
The author also traces all the previous owners of his Mercedes. He gets a little carried away with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but overall this was a great, entertaining, and quick read. The trip of driving from Amsterdam to Ouagadougou would have been interested enough, but the author does a great job of weaving in historical aspects of the areas that he drives through. These history lessons are so interesting in summary that I am going to read additional books mentioned by the author.
You truly feel like you have some insight into their personality as a reader. I liked this book. The author has come up with a fascinating idea for a book. My only regret is that his world view comes across as slightly condescending, and even though he has travelled to these places multiple times (which indicates that he must have had some enjoyment), I found myself less interested in going there myself. Some other travel books I liked even more are Learning to Bow, The Ridiculous Race, Hitching Rides With Buddha, and an old classic, Iron and Silk. I learned a lot about Saharan Africa and the countries he visited in West Africa. It took me awhile to finish the book because his digressions are sometimes a little too lengthy for me (he discusses a Mercedes factory at length and retells the Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance).There are a number of interesting characters that he meets along the way and he does a good job of describing them.
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