Theroux sets out this time from Cape Town, heading northwards in a new direction, up the left-hand side, through South Africa and Namibia, to Botswana, then on into Angola, heading for the Congo, in search of the end of the line. He encounters a world increasingly removed from both the intineraries of tourists and the hopes of post-colonial independence movements.
Theroux crosses 'the Red Line' into a different Africa, one of heat and poverty, and of roadblocks, mobs and anarchy. Counterpointing the brutalized landscapes of Angola, where no wild animals survive and the population is overwhelmingly destitute, with the joyful endurance and resourcefulness of the San People of northeastern Namibia, the author finds an Africa altered for the worse but still capable.
