Crossing the Sands


Book Description




Sahara Overland


Book Description

Whether readers are traveling by 4WD or camel, this acclaimed guide covers all aspects Saharan and includes 10,000 miles of itineraries in Morocco, Mauritania, Libya, Mali, Tunisia, Algeria, Niger, Chad, and Egypt.




Wheels Across the Desert


Book Description

In between the search for the Poles, the climbing of Everest and the Space Race, the exploration of the Sahara - a huge swathe of terrain, the size of India - by motor car is one of the untold chapters in the story of twentieth-century exploration. Many people have become fascinated by this area since falling in love with the scenery of 'The English Patient'.




Morocco Overland


Book Description

Covers over 10,000km from the High Atlas to the Mauritanian border, with detailed GPS off-road routes for 4WDs, motorcycles, campervans and mountain bikes.--Bertram.




The Speed of Change


Book Description

In the early 1900s the motor-vehicle (car, bus, lorry or motor-cycle) was introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially the plaything and symbol of colonial domination, the motor-vehicle transformed the economic and social life of the continent. Indeed, the motor-vehicle is arguably the single most important factor for change in Africa in the twentieth century. A factor for change that thus far has been neglected in research and literature. Yet its impact extends across the totality of human existence; from ecological devastation to economic advancement, from cultural transformation to political change, through to a myriad of other themes. This edited volume of eleven contributions by historians, anthropologists and social and political scientists explores aspects of the social history and anthropology of the motor-vehicle in Africa.




Literature of Travel and Exploration


Book Description

Containing more than 600 entries, this valuable resource presents all aspects of travel writing. There are entries on places and routes (Afghanistan, Black Sea, Egypt, Gobi Desert, Hawaii, Himalayas, Italy, Northwest Passage, Samarkand, Silk Route, Timbuktu), writers (Isabella Bird, Ibn Battuta, Bruce Chatwin, Gustave Flaubert, Mary Kingsley, Walter Ralegh, Wilfrid Thesiger), methods of transport and types of journey (balloon, camel, grand tour, hunting and big game expeditions, pilgrimage, space travel and exploration), genres (buccaneer narratives, guidebooks, New World chronicles, postcards), companies and societies (East India Company, Royal Geographical Society, Society of Dilettanti), and issues and themes (censorship, exile, orientalism, and tourism). For a full list of entries and contributors, a generous selection of sample entries, and more, visit the Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia website.




Literature of Travel and Exploration: G to P


Book Description

Containing more than 600 entries, this valuable resource presents all aspects of travel writing. There are entries on places and routes (Afghanistan, Black Sea, Egypt, Gobi Desert, Hawaii, Himalayas, Italy, Northwest Passage, Samarkand, Silk Route, Timbuktu), writers (Isabella Bird, Ibn Battuta, Bruce Chatwin, Gustave Flaubert, Mary Kingsley, Walter Ralegh, Wilfrid Thesiger), methods of transport and types of journey (balloon, camel, grand tour, hunting and big game expeditions, pilgrimage, space travel and exploration), genres (buccaneer narratives, guidebooks, New World chronicles, postcards), companies and societies (East India Company, Royal Geographical Society, Society of Dilettanti), and issues and themes (censorship, exile, orientalism, and tourism). For a full list of entries and contributors, a generous selection of sample entries, and more, visit the Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia website.




With Motorcar to the Sudan


Book Description

László Almásy is best known for his fictional character in the English Patient movie, but he was a real life desert explorer, one of a handful who were searching out what is in the middle of the last remaining blank spot of the map of the world, the central Libyan Desert. Almásy was particularly interested in the myth of the lost Zerzura Oasis, he organised a number of expeditions to the central Libyan Desert, pioneering the use of aeroplane in desert exploration. He claimed to have identified a valley with vegetation in the Gilf Kebir with the mythical Zerzura, however more importantly he discovered a number of spectacular prehistoric paintings, including the famed Cave of Swimmers. He wrote three books on his travels in Hungarian, all of which appeared in the Library of the Hungarian Geographical Society series. This first book, With Motorcar to the Sudan (1929) describes a 1926 motorcar journey through Egypt and Sudan, his first encounter with Africa. Unlike his later two books, this one contains no dramatic accounts of exploration or discoveries, however it is a well written and amusing travelogue describing his first experiences (and blunders) while driving in the sand with a Steyr VII from Alexandria to Khartoum (the first such accomplishment by an ordinary automobile), then further south to the Dinder for a three week hunting trip. The crossing of the Nubian Desert in Sudan was a prelude to many of his greater desert voyages, and the narrative provides interesting glimpses into Almásy's character and thinking.