Travels with Thunberg

Carl Thunberg, a pupil of the great Linnaeus, undertook three pioneering journeys in South Africa during the Eighteenth Century, collecting plants and animal specimens to send home to Sweden for scientific purposes. The author, Olwen Gibson, armed with the diaries of Thunberg, Masson and Sparrman, set out to follow in Thunberg’s wagon tracks. This book is an account of her travels with Thunberg over the years as she gradually became acquainted with his routes; and with the man himself. It is illustrated with her photographs, hand drawn maps and sketches, and her beautiful water-colour paintings of the plants that Thunberg would have encountered along the way.