The Tortured Traveller

Get ready to laugh, shake your head in disbelief, and be inspired to travel (or not).

When Sheldon Herman's house needs renovation, he decides the place to be during that time is as far away as possible. On a bit of a whim he gets his travel agent to book him a tour to a destination that wasn't exactly on his world travel bucket list. A month later, he finds himself in Cape Town, South Africa, about to embark on an adventure that will turn out to be unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.

Over the next sixty days and with his two trusty, bright orange suitcases-dubbed Pylon One and Pylon Two-in tow, Sheldon explores the highlights of Southern Africa from Cape Town to Nairobi, Kenya, by way of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. But instead of the luxury safari accommodation he was promised, he becomes intimately acquainted with Ursula, an ugly tent he has to set up himself. And what he thought was going to be a tour bus with comfortable, reclining seats and power outlets turns out to be prone to leaking when it rains ... which is often.

The Tortured Traveller: How I Survived the Worst Vacation Ever is the hilarious account of a woefully unprepared tourist trying to come to terms with everything, from the beauty and cruelty of Botswana wildlife to the creature comforts of the Hyatt Zanzibar, where he experiences the kind of bizarre massage you won't usually read about in East Africa travel books. In between, there's a bit of romance, a tragedy, and lots of action.

This African safari book is one of the funniest travel memoirs you'll read about a region that only the most intrepid of travellers visit. Not many other travel books for adults will make you laugh, shake your head in disbelief, and inspire you to either go see for yourself or stay far, far away quite like The Tortured Traveller does.