One summer in the early 1960's whilst holidaying in the Scottish Borders, my mother decided that we should visit her favourite cousin, Jack Gray. Jack was a GP in Hexham, but I had never met him because he had been in Africa between 1948 and 1961 - as a surgeon in a mission hospital. The hospital was on the banks of the Congo River, at a place called Bolobo - about 250 km north east of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa).

Almost 50 years later I met Jack for the second time - in Auckland, New Zealand, where he now lives. A shoe box full of letters written to his parents in Congo Belge (as it was until 1960) sparked my interest - and in less than a weeks time I will be flying out to Entebbe in Uganda to join a "Wild Frontiers" trip travelling "In the Footsteps of Stanley".

From Entebbe we drive west to Fort Portal, then north to Bunia inthe Democratic Republic of Congo before turning west again for more than 500 km to Kisangani on the Congo River. When we get there we very much hope (!) that a "Go Congo" boat will be waiting to take us on a 16 day trip down the river to Kinshasa - and on the way there is a place called Bolobo ....