Five Weeks in a Balloon

Verne's first major success is an African adventure told from the air. The English explorer Dr Samuel Ferguson plans to cross Africa from east to west in a hydrogen balloon of his own design. With his loyal servant Joe and his friend Dick Kennedy, a keen hunter, he takes off from Zanzibar. As they drift over deserts, lakes, rivers and unmapped lands, they face storms, hunger, thirst and hostile peoples. The book blends geography, the science of ballooning and good-humoured companionship, and it set the pattern for the author's later travel novels.