Pat Spain was nearly thrown in a Cameroonian prison, learned to use a long-drop toilet while a village of pygmy children watched, and was deemed “too dirty to fly” for this book.
Pat Spain was nearly thrown in a Cameroonian prison, learned to use a long-drop toilet while a village of pygmy children watched, and was deemed “too dirty to fly” for this book.
Adventure, Regional, West
On the Hunt in West Africa finds Bostonian Pat Spain, an inexperienced but enthusiastic traveler and wildlife biologist, on the first shoot of his new National Geographic TV series in Cameroon, the Congo, and the Central African Republic. He was told it would be his “trial by fire” for the world of wildlife TV, and soon finds that to be literally true after their decrepit pick-up truck catches fire while doing 100 MPH on a dirt road. Things only get more uncomfortable for Pat from there as he experiences the wildlife (getting charged by a silverback gorilla and having a killer bee land on his exposed penis), the food (eating rat and face-meltingly hot peppers), and some local traditions (he’s almost arrested, accidentally married, and inadvertently invites an evil forest spirit to live in the Pygmy village he’s staying in), and somehow manages (in his mind, at least) to solve the mystery of Mokele M’Bembe - a supposed living dinosaur in the riverways connecting these three countries.
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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. It was a fast read: entertaining and informative. I had fun, learn something new, and laughed a lot. It was an interesting book about a cryptozoology expedition. Recommended. ~ Anna Maria Giacomasso (Reviewer) , NetGalley
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. A Living Dinosaur - On the Hunt in West Africa is a lovely, short little memoir about TV’s Pat Spain hunt for Mokele Membe, a sauropod, believed to exist in West Africa. It is written in a very humorous style and anyone who enjoys the dry wit and wry observations of a traveller, will thoroughly enjoy this book. There’s toilet humour, a killer bee that lands on a certain exposed body part and even a charging silverback gorilla, guaranteed to scare anyone. This book was entertaining and such a Quick read, I’d thoroughly recommend! ~ Louisa Heaton (Reviewer), NetGalley
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. I never saw National Geographic’s Beast Hunter (which ran for five episodes in 2011), but that isn’t a necessary precursor to enjoying host Pat Spain’s account of filming the series. A Living Dinosaur: On the Hunt in West Africa: Or, How I Avoided Prison But Was Outsmarted by a Snail is one of six short books that Spain wrote about his time filming with Nat Geo — as he travelled the world looking for monsters and cryptids — and the result in this volume is charming, funny, and thoughtful. As a wildlife biologist, Spain is fascinated by the critters he encounters in the West African rainforest — from millipede to silverback — and as a wide-eyed fish-out-of-water traveller, he has plenty of you-couldn’t-make-this-stuff-up stories about his madcap adventures. Personally, I might have preferred an opportunity to read all six volumes together — or, at any rate, for this book to be longer or deeper — but if my only complaint is that I wanted more, that’s not much of a complaint at all. ~ Krista Thompson (Bookseller) , NetGalley
Pat Spain is that rare thing; a rationalist who still embraces the possible and knows that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of. A grown-up who has lost none of the childhood wonder and curiosity that makes the world magical. A scientist who keeps an open mind and rejoices in the fact that absence of proof is not proof of absence. There is nobody I’d want to travel with more to explore the wild side of our literally extraordinary planet. Buckle up and prepare for adventures. ~ Harry Marshall, Chairman and Co-Founder of Icon Films
Spain’s book is a fascinating and hilarious romp through some of the wildest places on Earth. Strap on your seatbelt (if you’re lucky enough to have one) and join the ride! ~ Lyle Blackburn, author of The Beast of Boggy Creek
