How far would you go for love?

In 1898, when his girlfriend’s stepfather asked what he had done to prove himself worthy of marriage, 24-year-old Ewart Grogan responded by walking across Africa.

His 4,500-mile trek is one of the greatest unsung tales in the history of African exploration. Yet Grogan’s trail has never been repeated—until now.

Months before his own marriage, award-winning travel and science writer Julian Smith became the first person to retrace this groundbreaking route from the Indian Ocean to the wilds of Sudan.

The last great journey of the Golden Age of Exploration took Grogan from the coast of what is now Mozambique through the Great Rift Valley into the deadly swamps of the Sudd.

Along the way the courageous Cambridge student battled tropical disease, starvation, charging elephants, reluctant porters and hungry cannibals. Africans called him Bwana Chui, “The Leopard,” for his piercing yellow-green eyes and iron determination.

Eventually—barely—Grogan made it, stumbling back to civilization after two years in the bush.

It worked. Not only did he find fame and fortune waiting back in London, but also Gertrude Watt, whom he married without delay.

Crossing the Heart of Africa weaves Smith’s firsthand experiences along the route with excerpts from Grogan’s own 1905 account.

From Lake Tanganyika to the Mountains of the Moon, past lush volcanos and reed-choked swamps, through threatened game reserves and countries torn by poverty, sickness and war, the journey remains a cross section of a continent balanced between chaos and hope.

Both a grand adventure in the classic tradition and an intensely personal account, Crossing the Heart of Africa reveals the common ground between a 24-year-old Victorian at the twilight of the 19th century and a 35-year-old American at the beginning of the 21st—both unmarried and eager for adventure, each hoping a woman will still be waiting when he returns.