Redmond O'Hanlon · 1984 · river

Redmond O'Hanlon's 1984 account of taking the poet James Fenton up the rivers of Sarawak to look for the Borneo rhinoceros, which they do not find. Neither man is remotely qualified. What follows is a comic masterpiece of leeches, rapids, hospitality in longhouses, and two Englishmen conducting themselves badly in one of the oldest forests on earth.

1. 1
   Kuching

   O'Hanlon and James Fenton assemble in Kuching with an absurd quantity of equipment, having prepared by reading Victorian naturalists and asking an SAS instructor what to do when things go wrong.

2. 2
   Kapit

   They work up the Rajang by longboat to Kapit, the last real town, and take on three Iban companions who are competent in every way the Englishmen are not - and who will spend the trip quietly saving them from themselves.

3. 3
   The Baleh

   Turning up the Baleh, the party moves into serious country: rapids to be hauled through, leeches that arrive by the dozen, and longhouses where the hospitality is overwhelming and the tuak keeps coming.

4. 4
   Bukit Batu Tiban

   They reach the mountain at the head of the river, in forest that has stood since before the ice ages - and find no rhinoceros, which by then is not remotely the point of having come.