Michael Asher In 1986, Michael Asher and his wife Mariantonietta Peru set out to cross the Sahara from west to east, by camel and on foot. Asher was already a seasoned desert traveler who’d learned his camel skills in Sudan’s Darfur region. He met his wife — an aid worker and photographer — in Khartoum, but they’d only been married for five days when they ventured into the sands. Their...
Eamonn Gearon If you think the world’s largest desert is an empty wasteland, then you’re in for a surprise. You’ll be amazed at the Sahara’s geographic and cultural diversity. At the empires that rose and fell there. At its vast network of trade routes that connected the Mediterranean world to sub-Saharan Africa. And its many stories of exploration and travel. The Arabist and...
Tom Sheppard’s 40 years of overlanding experience make him one of the world’s foremost experts on desert travel. Among the highlights, he’s tackled six solo Sahara expeditions since 2001, and he led the first coast to coast crossing of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, which won him an award from the Royal Geographical Society. Sheppard’s gift for writing about...
You’re alone in the middle of Algeria. Your entire library of irreplaceable and out of print topographical maps has been confiscated by the military, and they suspect you of being a spy. It’s all just a bizarre misunderstanding of course, but they’re talking about deporting you. If they do, you’ll probably never get another visa to the country. This may be your one and...