Snow on the Equator

'To those who went to the War straight from school and survived it, the problem of what to do afterwards was particularly difficult.' For H.W. Tilman, the solution lay in Africa – gold prospecting, mountaineering and a 3,000-mile solo bicycle ride across the continent. Tilman was perhaps the greatest explorer of his time, a famed mountaineer and pioneering sailor who made first ascents throughout the Himalaya, attempted Everest, and sailed into the Arctic Circle. For Tilman, the goal was always to discover new places, to explore rather than conquer. Snow on the Equator chronicles Tilman's early adventures; his transition from East African coffee planter to famed mountaineer. After World War I, he moved to Africa, meeting Eric Shipton and beginning a hugely successful mountaineering partnership. He hunted game, experimented with mining and climbed Mount Kenya, Kilimanjaro and Ruwenzori before embarking on a remarkable bicycle odyssey across Africa – recounted here in splendidly funny style. Tilman became one of the greatest of all travel writers. His writings are the works of a subtle and wry humourist with an ironic, yet cultured and committed world view. He is part of the great British tradition of comic writing – and there is nobody else quite like him.