On-the-trail adventures with both wild beasts and incredibly strange characters who became traveling companions. From the desolate Karoo and continuing through the Kalahari Desert, the Congo, and on to the Lupa Goldfield in Tanganyika, Burger meets some of the strangest characters imaginable: He accompanies the world's most fantastic snake man, who is bitten by the deadly mamba and cobra. In the dense forest Burger awakens one night to savage drum beats, and, interpreting them as messages from a cannibal tribe, escapes being their next meal. In addition to these enthralling tales, the reader shares adventures on the trail of the lion, the elephant, and buffalo.