Five Weeks in a Balloon

A journey of discovery by three Englishmen in Africa: Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne published in 1863. Readers get a peek at the discovery of Africa in this book which was still mostly unknown to Europeans at the time.The mission of Samuel Fergusson aims to connect the expeditions of Heinrich Barth in the Sahara and Chad with those of Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke in East Africa. Although it is truly a savanna the novel refers to the uncharted interior of Africa around the present-day Central African Republic as a desert. Starting in Zanzibar the journey continues through Agadez Timbuktu Djenné Lake Victoria Lake Chad and Ségou.Finding the source of the Nile was a major goal of the early expedition. Bringing together the other explorers is the second leg. There are several action-packed sequences that either feature a battle with a local or one with the environment.