It's 1974 and I've just completed my Master of Science degree, when I suddenly realize the moment has come to pack my bag, board a flight to Europe, and join my best friend John to begin our trip around the world we had been planning for several months. But was I really prepared for a 5-month journey overland across Africa that John and I had talked about? As I left Seattle, I had no idea what adventures and challenges lay ahead of me, and that was precisely the reason to travel to Africa. On the overland journey there were countless days of overwhelming heat and desolation in the Sahara Desert, several bouts of debilitating disease, and constant mechanical breakdowns that had me wondering many times if I had made the right decision. But there were also unforgettable moments of joy and amazement - meeting the local people in remote villages who welcomed us and discovering the beauty of the incredibly diverse landscape of the African continent. Most of all, somewhere along the way in the middle of Africa, I met the love of my life, my wife-to-be!
I gave it the title "Travels with King Kong - A Journey from the Known to the Unknown" for a very special reason. The journey really began when John and I stepped off the ferry in Tangiers and suddenly found ourselves in a strange and exotic land. A few days later, we joined an overland expedition travelling from London to Nairobi in two vintage British Army vehicles, one of which was an old bus nicknamed "King Kong." Over the next five months, the expedition took us across the burning sands of the Sahara Desert, through the steaming jungles of the Congo, and eventually to the vast plains of East Africa. Along the way, King Kong suffered countless mechanical breakdowns, including two weeks stranded in the middle of the Sahara, when a valve dropped through one of the pistons in the engine two hundred miles from the nearest town. Throughout the journey there were unforgettable people and places that challenged our curiosity and emotions. There was the enjoyment of savoring fresh chocolate served on a banana leaf, shopping in the colorful village markets where everything from beetle nuts to insect larvae were for sale, a celebration for a new village chief in the heart of the Congo, camping below Stanley Falls, a fascinating encounter with the Pygmies in the Ituri Forest, the roar of lions in the night on the plains of East Africa, climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, and a hundred other special moments that I captured with my pen and camera. And somewhere along the way, between the desert and the jungle, I discovered an incredibly special person who would change my life forever - my wife to be! She was one of the members of the expedition, and over the course of several weeks, we became intimately involved. After reaching Nairobi, we spent a month together on the lovely island of Lamu in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya - a tropical paradise where our love grew even stronger. After almost eight months in Africa, we flew to London, rented a small flat in Wimbledon and found temporary jobs before deciding to get married. A couple of months later we moved to Seattle, Washington and settled into American life. The rest is history! But the experience of traveling across Africa has stayed with me ever since - truly the experience of a lifetime!
Henderson, James: - I was born in London, England at the end of WWII. My mother and I immigrated to the United States when I was just a year old, to join my father who had served during WWII with the US Air Force in England. I grew up on a farm in Illinois and studied forestry and landscape architecture in college. I lived in Seattle for several years and worked in Montana, Idaho, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska before moving to southern California to join the world's leading computer mapping software company. As a technical trainer, I had the opportunity to travel to more than 80 countries conducting workshops and classes. I've had a lifelong passion for photography, especially landscapes and nature. The year I spent traveling across Africa changed my life forever.
