Mary Kingsley began her life as a typically conventional Victorian woman. She would end up travelling to some of the most inhospitable regions of Africa to become one of the most feted travellers of the day. At the age of 31 she travelled to West Africa - her first trip to the continent she had always dreamed of visiting. She sailed on a cargo ship along the coast from Sierra Leone to Angola and then travelled inland from Guinea to Nigeria, studying African customs and beliefs. On her second journey, she ventured into remote parts of Gabon and the French Congo - the first European to do so. She encountered cannibals and crocodiles, studied the religious customs of the mysterious Fang tribe, climbed Mount Cameroon and explored the Ogowe River, trading cloth for ivory and rubber to fund her trip. She returned only once to Africa, during the Boer War, when she worked as a nurse and journalist. Tragically, she died of typhoid in 1900, only 38 years old.