# Who're your favourite explorers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 7, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whore-your-favourite-explorers/745499 "2016-02-07T23:46:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whore-your-favourite-explorers/745499/41 "2016-02-08T22:07:40Z")
Another lesser known, but no less intrepid an explorer, was Scotsman Mungo Park, who was the first European to locate and explore the Niger River in West Africa. Another of those quixotic British quests, the search for the mouth of the Niger resulted in many, many deaths from dysentery, malaria and other diseases common to those areas. Park never made it to the mouth, but managed to return to Scotland after many tribulations. Then he pressed his luck and returned for another shot at the title, only to be drowned in the very river he was exploring. One account I read speculated that the plethora of Scottish explorers was due to the truly appalling living conditions in Scotland during those times. Anything else looked positively sunny by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whore-your-favourite-explorers/745499/42 "2016-02-08T23:23:15Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Another lesser known, but no less intrepid an explorer, was Scotsman Mungo Park, who was the first European to locate and explore the Niger River in West Africa. Another of those quixotic British quests, the search for the mouth of the Niger resulted in many, many deaths from dysentery, malaria and other diseases common to those areas. Park never made it to the mouth, but managed to return to Scotland after many tribulations. Then he pressed his luck and returned for another shot at the title, only to be drowned in the very river he was exploring. Park’s adventures were fictionalized by T. Coraghessan Boyle in [Water Music,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Music_(novel)) his first novel. The Niger was sort of the reverse problem from the Nile. People knew of its middle section near Timbuktu but didn’t know where its mouth was. Some thought it was a tributary of the Nile, some of the Senegal, some even the Congo. The actual mouth is concealed in a maze of a delta making it difficult to identify. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whore-your-favourite-explorers/745499/43 "2016-02-09T00:03:40Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Heinrich Barth. European explorer in Africa. > \>snip\< I don’t think I’ve read about him, so I just put **A labyrinth of kingdoms : 10,000 miles through Islamic Africa** on hold. He had a magnificent set of muttonchops, did he not? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whore-your-favourite-explorers/745499/44 "2016-02-09T00:20:18Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Park’s adventures were fictionalized by T. Coraghessan Boyle in [Water Music,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Music_(novel)) his first novel. > > The Niger was sort of the reverse problem from the Nile. People knew of its middle section near Timbuktu but didn’t know where its mouth was. Some thought it was a tributary of the Nile, some of the Senegal, some even the Congo. The actual mouth is concealed in a maze of a delta making it difficult to identify. The bitter irony for some of the explorers who came after Park, is that they elected to begin their explorations from the coast instead of going overland from Tripoli. They had no idea that they were embarking from the very thing they were searching for. I think Park was the first white man to see Timbuktu, another fabled ‘city of gold’ that turned out to be just another dusty village. Famously, Alexander Gordon Laing and Hugh Clapperton engaged in a cross-country race to become the first to discover Timbuktu’s riches (although it seems Park beat him to it much earlier). Laing ‘won’, but was later murdered by Tuaregs on his second attempt crossing the desert from Tripoli. A good book on all this is [The Race for Timbuktu](http://www.amazon.com/The-Race-Timbuktu-Story-Gordon-ebook/dp/B004KKXWN8). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whore-your-favourite-explorers/745499/45 "2016-02-09T01:31:44Z")
I’ll go with Carl Sagan. Dora is pretty cool, but that Map is an _ASS!_ ---
**Author:** ![scootergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whore-your-favourite-explorers/745499/46 "2016-02-09T03:41:33Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy;19083310 [Percy Fawcett] ([Percy Fawcett - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Fawcett)), British explorer obsessed with South America and the fabled gold city of El Dorado. Impervious to diseases that killed explorers by the drove, the man finally fell victim to one of the jungle tribes. [/QUOTE] Just put The Lost City of Z: a tale of deadly obsession in the Amazon on hold. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whore-your-favourite-explorers/745499/47 "2016-02-09T11:33:05Z")
> [@Arrendajo](#): > > I don’t think I’ve read about him, so I just put **A labyrinth of kingdoms : 10,000 miles through Islamic Africa** on hold. He had a magnificent set of muttonchops, did he not? It’s a very good book. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whore-your-favourite-explorers/745499.md?page=2)