Crazy River

Ah, the mighty Malagarasi River! Few people have heard of the second-longest river in Tanzania; when Grant (God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre) learned about it, he became a bit obsessed with rafting the river from its headwaters to Lake Tanganyika. After two years of planning, Grant finally got his chance to follow in the footsteps of fellow British explorers, including his personal favorite Richard Francis Burton, and set out across East Africa. From Zanzibar to the Tanzanian mainland, Burundi, and Rwanda, Grant encountered a former African golf pro, prostitutes, expats, NGO workers, big-game hunters and guides, government officials (mostly corrupt), poachers, and refugees; interviewed the president of Rwanda; met many Africans struggling to stay alive; and tried to survive his East African adventure.