All routes

Five Weeks in a Balloon: Zanzibar to Senegal

Jules Verne's novel sends Dr. Samuel Ferguson across Africa in a balloon filled with hydrogen, from Zanzibar past Lake Victoria, Lake Chad and Timbuktu to the Senegal River and Saint-Louis. The route follows seven places from the book in order, from the departure port to the Nile source, the desert crossing and the falls of Gouina where the Victoria is lost. Verne's Africa is a nineteenth-century view, and the novel's pins are broad: most marks are areas, not exact spots.