“But in Africa bureaucrats are usually too proud to accept a bribe, something I admire when I'm not the one being arrested.”

“It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.”

“Spend sixteen weeks in the jungle and you being to question your own sanity, especially when you are the one goading everyone else ahead.”

“Usually, there is nothing more pleasing that returning to a place where you have endured hardship.”

“Buy a house in a foreign country and, it seems, that anything which can go wrong usually does.”

“Ours was not going to be a clone of the usual expeditions, oozing with sleekness. It was clear from the start that oddity was our advantage.”

“The ability to tell a good route from a terrible one is a valuable skill when leading an expedition. Unfortunately for us all, it was a skill I did not possess.”