This is a travel diary recounting a microlight journey from the rain forests of Cameroun in the armpit of West Africa, travelling north and west in an arc through the Sahara and Tombouctou to the Atlantic. By the end of the journey the author had certainly learnt to fly. The form of travel afforded the author the opportunity to have bird's eye views of forest canopy, volcanic ranges and desert as well as the possibility of alighting at will to explore at ground level memorials of lost African empires, and to visit to a mountain sorcerer and river pygmies. She describes the rodi paintings she saw, a dinosaur graveyard, the emirs and maribus, duck-billed women, Dogan masked dancers, how she dodged the Paris to Dakar roadrace and her experiences camping with the Tuareg nomads.