“He preferred to assume that plenty was still unknown, and to accept that fear was the price you paid for paddling into Nature’s secrets.”
The Economist, Obituary, December 29, 2010
This is a true story of the greatest African explorer you have never heard of. Equipped with a core philosophy and a lot of luck, Hendri Coetzee embarks on a series of increasingly outrageous adventures in search of what he calls the best day ever. Through a series of harrowing and often hilarious experiences, he is subjected to grueling challenges in the most unique and compelling classroom on earth: the rivers and jungles of Africa.
Recognised for his unique approach to extreme adventures, Johannes Hendrik (Hendri) Coetzee was a true African explorer; a modern day incarnation of the nineteenth century mould of Livingston, Stanley, Baker, Burton and Speke. A South African, born in 1975, he ventured into the depths of Africa evoking the legacy of his predecessors when he jokingly referred to himself as a ‘Great White Explorer’. Coetzee spent more than a decade risking his life on the riverine veins that pulse thorough the heart of Africa, only to discover an intangible way to feel most alive.