Renowned explorer and adventurer Rick Ridgeway takes us on a walk, a five-hundred-kilometer trek from the icy summit of Mr. Kilimanjaro across the famed Tsavo parks of Kenya to the shores of the Indian Ocean. Here is a rare and thrilling view, as Ridgeway and his party find themselves eyeball to eyeball with lion and buffalo, elephant and crocodile.

But Ridgeway has more in mind than sheer adventure. The Tsavo has, in recent years, become a critical focal point of environmental concern and political activity. To whom shall the future of this land and its inhabitants be entrusted?

Accompanying Ridgeway on his trek is a cast of characters memorable not just for the strength of their personalities but for the history and culture of the Tsavo that each represents. Led by Iain Allan, considered by many the most experienced mountaineer and guide in East Africa, the team includes the sons of the legendary Tsavo warden Bill Woodley, now park wardens themselves.

Though these men may unwittingly represent the heritage of the "white hunter," their presence on the journey is balanced by Mohamed and Lokiyor, each from a separate Kenyan tribe. The sense of history that infuses this journey is reflected by others encountered along the way, either in person or in stories told: the remnant members of the Waliangulu tribe, the legendary elephant-hunting "People of the Long Bow," and numerous figures in African life past and present, from J. H.

Patterson and Denys Finch Hatton to David Western, Richard Leakey, and Joyce Poole.