The Rough and the Smooth

This is the incredible story of two journeys in South America. Neither journey had been attempted before-both were considered impossible! In 1958 Robin Hanbury-Tenison and his great friend, Richard Mason, drove a jeep 6,000 miles from the East to the West Coast of the continent. Six years later, despite the fact that Richard Mason had by then been killed by South American Indians on a second expedition, Robin returned to complete his second journey from the mouth of the Orinoco to the River Plat at Buenos Aires. At first he had the company of the explorer Sebastian Snow, but for most of the hazardous three-month trip he travelled alone, in a small rubber dinghy. The discomforts, dramas and almost insurmountable difficulties which threatened both these expeditions through country often known as "The Green Hell" are described by the author in a refreshingly down-to-earth style, with clarity and humour. His vast resources of courage are glossed over but his indefatigable determination to succeed is obvious throughout the book, and it was this characteristic which undoubtedly enabled him to overcome the countless set-backs, break-downs, physical hardships, near starvation and all the inevitable dangers existing in large areas of uncharted jungle.