DATE: Sunday, September 21, 1997            TAG: 9709110865

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY PEGGY DEANS EARLE 

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

THE LURE OF TIMBUKTU PROVIDES OUTLET FOR DEEPER URGES

TO TIMBUKTU

A Journey Down the Niger

MARK JENKINS

William Morrow. 224 p. $25.

Timbuktu. Say it out loud and its rhythmic foreignness makes you think of the exotic - of mystery - of a point on the map as far away as possible from anywhere.

The west African city's mythical reputation for fabulous treasures and beauty has piqued the curiosity of adventurers and explorers for centuries. Many ventured, all suffered unspeakably, but few actually made it to their destination.

The name held enough fascination to entice writer Mark Jenkins and his close friend, Mike Moe, to set out for Timbuktu. In 1977, when they were both 18, they traveled, naive and unprepared for an overland trip that had to be abandoned because of illness and the hardship of a Sahara crossing.

Fifteen years later, they set out again. Joined by two buddies, Jenkins and Moe planned the adventure, this time attempting a water route. They would find the source of the Niger and, in their state-of-the-art collapsible kayaks, be the first to paddle the river from source to sea. Timbuktu, while the inspiration for the trip, would be a stop along the way.

In To Timbuktu: A Journey Down the Niger, Jenkins chronicles that 1992 journey. Interwoven between the exciting, often frightening stages of the trip, the author inserts memorable moments from his earlier attempt and accounts of some of his doomed predecessors from history.

The book is mesmerizing. Jenkins, a magazine journalist, describes scenes of stark beauty and awesome danger. With refreshing candor, he reveals the personality conflicts and disparate expectations of the two sets of friends. And, as always in life, nothing is predictable; there are surprises at every turn. An attack by killer bees, horrific at first, ends with laughter. Encounters with locals might be threatening or the beginning of beautiful friendships.

Jenkins, here a brave explorer, there a reckless thrill-seeker, is always an excellent storyteller.

And the moral of the story? The city of Timbuktu, exotic name, legend and all, was merely an excuse for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure - a stop along the way. MEMO: Peggy Deans Earle is an artist and staff librarian.

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