There can't be many truly 'foreign' places left on earth but it looks as though Redmond O'Hanlon found one when he decided to try to see the African branch of the Loch Ness monster family on Lake Tele in the Congo.

The journey from Brazzville to Boha is eventful and whether the country is full of odd characters or whether it's just that Mr. O'Hanlon just manages to find them is left to your imagination. In a material western society it is strange to us how much of the lives of the people of the Congo are lived in the Spirit world where curses and well wishes have real power and you wouldn't want to be caught out without a powerful fetish.

I have lived with Marcellin, Nze and Manou for a couple of weeks and I will miss them now I've finished the book. Oh, and Lary, what a nice man, a shame he didn't