In 1961, Jack Gelinas, a Mobil Oil executive living in West Africa, documented his incredible odyssey from his home in Lagos, Nigeria to the fabled city of Timbuktu in To Timbuktu: A Travel Journal. En route to the legendary city by automobile, boat, and foot, he met a plethora of remarkable people who shaped his experience and enlarged his world. Through his diary, you can imagine and envision the fantastic sights, sounds, tastes, and smells he experienced on his remote trek, as he was introduced to preeminent cultures with roots across millennia along and near the Niger River.