Zambezi: Journey of a River presents a fascinating potpourri of excitement and adventure, containing a wealth of carefully researched anecdotes and stories: stories of powerful African kingdoms and colourful tribal ceremonies, missionaries and martyrs, bloodshed and savagery, colonial disputes, staves, cannibals and concubines, crackpots and criminals, explores and pioneers: stories of the fabled gold mines of Mwene Mutapa, lost silver mines of great wealth, an iron god and strange two-toed people. But the story of the Zambezi is not only the story of man. The river is rich in natural history. It is home to such curiosities as the dugong, catfish that electrocute their prey, frog-eating bats, snakes with two heads, turtles whose sex is determined by temperature, and migratory eels that have mysteriously mastered the man-made obstacles of Kariba and Cahora Bassato colonise the river beyond. Michael Main follows the ancient course of the Zambezi from its quiet birthplace in north-western Zambia through shallow valleys and flood plains, wild and savage gorges, stupendous waterfalls and rapids, two major hydroelectric schemes, the spectacular Zambezi Valley and finally through the ancient Zambezi delta to the Indian Ocean. It is a journey of thousands of kilometres, through four countries. It is an odyssey that leaves one awe-struck, humbled and, above all, anxious for the future of the savage and beautiful river.