Equator

The equator slices Borneo and Sumatra in half, cuts across Mount Kenya and the mouth of the Amazon. It brushes Singapore, Nairobi and Quito, threads through the Maldives, Gilberts and Galapagos. There is desert in Somalia, a volcano in Ecuador, savannah in Kenya and, most of all, jungle. Thurston Clarke would need 12 visas as he crossed and recrossed the equator - in Amazonian jungle, the rain forest in Zaire, on the runway of the terrifying Entebbe airport, in the beautiful "white highlands" of Kenya and the spiky mountains of Sumatra. Memories of sweat, charcoal and low tides blend with a series of memorable personal encounters. Clarke was also confronted with the horrors and tragedies of overpopulation, disease, corruption and the desecration of the environment.