Desert Travels: Motorcycle Journeys in the Sahara and West Africa

Welcome to the ebook edition of Desert Travels, originally written in the mid-1990s. It’s about 99% identical to the paper edition which is now just about out of print. A few words have been added to help clarify what country or even what century we’re in, and the detailed maps on the blog linked below will be a great help in following each trip. Desert Travels adds up to a 250-page paperback, or around 70,000 words.
Currently, following nearly a decade of much increased trafficking, banditry and terrorist activities, as well as nomadic rebellions and not least the recent outflow of weaponry and disenfranchised fighters from Libya, tourism in the central Sahara has collapsed or has become severely restricted. But it wasn't always like that. The 1980s were a Golden Age of independent desert exploration; post-colonial nations hadn't yet been beset by internal strife, while the glamour of the original Dakar Rally, as well as the advent of desert-capable motorcycles and 4x4s saw adventure travel flourish in the Sahara of Niger, Algeria and Mali. It’s unlikely those days will return. For once I found myself doing the right thing in the right place at the right time.