A large-scale adventure about friendship, ingenuity and what happens when a distant fortune becomes dangerously real.
Set across Paramaribo, jungle rivers and the remote Surinamese interior.
A story of friendship turns into a formidable search for a wartime fortune lost in the interior of Suriname. The team builds an extraordinary river craft, The Forty-Niner, and pushes into a landscape of punishing heat, violent water and dense jungle—while rivals close in on the same prize.
What starts as an improbable proposition among friends becomes an expedition requiring money, engineering, local knowledge and absolute trust. The preparation is part of the pleasure: equipment is sourced, routes are argued over and The Forty-Niner is assembled for a journey no ordinary boat could survive.
Inside the story
Suriname is never a mere backdrop. Paramaribo's heat and colour give way to immense rivers, jungle wildlife, isolated settlements and terrain that punishes every mistake. The men must improvise constantly as their comfortable assumptions disappear.
The promise of gold attracts more than adventurers. As competing interests converge on the expedition, the search becomes a struggle to protect both the discovery and one another.
Watch a scene
The river wins
A 30-second cinematic interpretation of the novel's opening disaster on the Marowijne River in 1884: a gold-laden pirogue, violent monsoon rapids, and the moment eighty kilograms of gold vanish into the current.
“The vessel was christened The Forty-Niner with a bottle of Parbo beer instead of champagne.”
From The Expedition
The world of the book
Paramaribo, jungle rivers and the remote Surinamese interior
What draws you in
↗ An ingenious purpose-built river platform
↗ A vivid journey into the Surinamese interior
↗ Treasure, rivalry and tested friendship
At its heart
◆ Friendship
◆ Survival
◆ Lost gold
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