ter us, little interest by tern o for o tietury ting of eyes. Silence. teentury was an age of river seekers.

    And t postscript ory on t of eartly by privately funded expeditions and follo lectures given at ty in London at Kensington Gore. tures are given by sunburned, exed men oo comfortable iquette of taxis, t  of bus conductors.

    ravel by local trains from toy meetings, ten lost, tickets misplaced, clinging only to ture notes— knapsacks ions travel at t early evening  of tary. It is an anonymous time, most of ty is going home.

    too early at Kensington Gore, eat at ter ty, airs  to tes. At eigalks begin.

    Every oture. Someone roduce talk and someone ests ture for inently critical but never impertinent. tay close to ts, and even obsessive assumptions are presented modestly.

    My journey t from Sokum on terranean to El Obeid in tracks of t a number and variety of interesting geographical problems....

    tion and researcioned in turer recorded ty people in ice in Antarctica. Similar losses in extreme  or orm are announced s “interesting geograpilization in connection ion or drainage of ta? Are tesian er supplies of the oases gradually diminishing?

    erious “Zerzura”? Are t” oases remaining to be discovered? ortoise marsolemy?

    Joor of Desert Surveys in Egypt, asked tions in

    By t. “/ so add a fes raised in teresting discussion on toric Geograp oasis of Zerzura was found by Ladislaus de Almasy and his companions.

    In  t decade of Libyan Desert expeditions came to an end, and t and silent pocket of tres of war.

    In tient vie distances. t dead knig liquid, one pillo can gaze beyond  into vista. Fartoheir works and days.

    s by ravels like a squire beside hese journeys.

    In   of teau, looking for t oasis t was called Zerzura.

    ty of Acacias.

    e  Europeans. Joed the Gilf in

    to t Surveys, ographer, Dr.

    Kadar t and Bermann. And t large plateau resting in t, tzerland, as Madox liked to say—s escarpments precipitous to t and , teau sloping gradually to t rose out of t four  of the Nile.

    For tians ter  of to terior erless. But in tiness of deserts you are al ory. tebu and Senussi tribes  t secrecy. tile lands t nestled ’s interior. Arab ers in teentury spoke of Zerzura. “ttle Birds.” “ty of Acacias.” In treasures, tab al Kanuz, Zerzura is depicted as a y, “ a map of t and you ary, carried out t great modern expedition. Bagnold -. Almasy-Madox -. Just nortropic of Cancer.

    e cion bet Daky, Bagnold called it. e knew eacimacies, eacher’s skills and weaknesses.

    e forgave Bagnold everyte about dunes. “ted sand resemble t  o the jaws of a dog.

    Our first journey, moving souto t among tribes. A seven-day journey to El taj. Madox and Bermann, four ot told us to start a journey in a sandstorm is good luck.” e camped t nigy miles sout morning  of our tents at five. too cold to sleep. e stepped to in t in t stars. tea. tes along e stones. e ate breakfast and tea.

    er orm t  us out of clear morning, coming from noually   is as team-pipes, iny jets of steam are puffing out. ttle spurts and s force. It seems as t o some upting force beneatrike against till it strikes t out, all but t objects fade from vieo keep moving. If you pause sand builds up as it ationary, and locks you in. You are lost forever. A sandstorm can last five rucks in later years  terrors came at nig by a storm in t tents from taking in sand like a sinking boat takes in er, ill  free by a camel driver.

    e travelled torms during nine days. e missed small desert too locate more supplies. t tea. t link ea urn and toer t alking. All t mattered he minimal brown liquid.

    Only by luck did umble on t toaj. I o treet of barometers, past tridge stalls, stands of Italian tomato sauce and otinned food from Beng, ostricail decorations, street dentists, book mercs. e ill mute, eac of a droral square of El taj  and ate lamb, rice, badaen into it. All ter t for tea flavoured .

    Sometime in  I joined a Bedouin caravan and old t turned out.

    I  to ent.  for tion, cataloguing fossil trees. I looked around ent, tos  cetera. As I acked up  t it I saion of to be a small lump, a dog possibly, under tied up, sleeping there.

    By , Bagnold was finis of us were everyw army of Cambyses.

    Looking for Zerzura.  and  and

    Not seeing eac ty Days Road. t tribes, t beautiful  in my life. e o tionless. I came to e nations. e are deformed by nation-states. Madox died because of nations.

    t could not be claimed or o ones, and given a ing names long before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and t. Its caravans, trange rambling feasts and cultures, left not an ember. All of us, even tance, ries. It o landscape. Fire and sand. e left ter came to and touctara, S  my name against suciful names. Erase tions! I aug.

    Still, some ed t dry ercourse, on ties in t of land nort of ted trees o bear ed a tribe to take  a year on tiations. tdid ype of sand dune named after  I ed to erase my name and time er ten years in t, it o slip across borders, not to belong to anyone, to any nation.

    or

    I forget travel in A-type Ford cars  time large balloon tires knoer on sand, but tand up to stone fields and splinter rocks.

    e leave Kharga on March

    Bermann and I  tten about by illiamson in  make up Zerzura.

    Sout of ted granite massifs rising out of t, and Gebel Kissu. teen miles apart from eacer in several of t Gebel Arkanu are bitter, not drinkable except in an emergency. illiamson said t ed t even one rain oasis in ter-stempt to cross suc, of t ar,  ure. t uries, hs and roads.

    e find jars at Abu Ballas us speaks of such jars.

    Bermann and I talk to a snakelike mysterious old man in tress of El Jof—in tone  once  Senussi sebu, a caravan guide by profession, speaking accented Arabic. Later Bermann says “like ts,” quoting us. e talk to , and  doctrine, is still not to reveal ts of t to strangers.

    At adi el Melik we see birds of an unknown species.

    On May , I climb a stone cliff and approac plateau from a neion. I find myself in a broad rees.

    time heir own.

    Someone seen bat caravan,  of ’s er over urns from o describe Zerzura.

    So a man in t can slip into a name as if s sempted never to leave sucainment. My great desire o remain t in a place uries—a fourteentury army, a tebu caravan, the Senussi raiders of

    And in betimes—not... until er suddenly reappeared fifty or a er. Sporadic appearances and disappearances, like legends and rumours tory.

    In t t loved ers, like a lover’s name, are carried blue in your er your t. One se lengt of to a rainstorm to allo.

    ing, c saying a word. his woman?

    ts on a map t colonists pus, enlarging ts and slaves and tides of poy. On t step by a  river, t sige eye) of a mountain t here forever.

    look into mirrors. It is o ture. e become vain o  eyes, trongest army, t merc. It is s a graven image of himself.

    But erested in o t. e sailed into t. e  finance emporary t us. “For ties t  in earlier times must   in my time ime before.... Man’s good fortune never abides in ton  a friend at Oxford ed me, got married t day, and ter fleo Cairo.

    tered our  still filled our moutled Zerzura, eentury. ravel t far in time you need a plane, and young Clifton was rich and he could fly and he had a plane.

    Clifton met us in El Jof, nort.  in er plane and owards he base camp.

    ood up in t and poured a drink out of  beside him.

    “I name te try Club,” he announced.

    I cainty scattered across .

    t like our c of th us.

    t ory....

    ton ohe warm alcohol.

    Bear. I don’t t, but ion for it t gre of a our stark order, into o fit e  be expected o bring  eous about it. Sood ted in her mane of hair.

    o tten books about dune formation, t culture of deserts. e seemed to be interested only in t could not be bougerest to tside  latitudes, or about an event t ion. t Abd el Melik Ibra-uring camels  man among tribes  of pographs.

    tons  days of t t to join a man in Kufra and spent many days rying out t secret from t of tion. I returned to t El Jof ts later.

    t fire ons, Madox, Bell and myself. If a man leaned back a feon began to recite sometwig fire.

    ts ly, in tory. I am a man ry until I e it to us.

    And in t desert sy days into our midst to describe tars—tenderly taugaphors.

    t,  S in vain, nor t  spectators, God  praise;  Millions of spiritual Creatures : en from teep  Of ec ial voices to t air,  Sole, or responsive eaco ote  Singing t Creator...

    t niged to  up and walked away.

    S  my age? I see ill, al of a plane, bending do to prod at a fire, ed towards me as seen.

    A feer, szed ly drunk s most revealed  time w lovers.

    All trying to uneart s look. It seemed to be contempt. So it appeared to me. Noudying me. S, surprised at somet time  te. I ting shan I.

    Sudying me. Succatue-like gaze, somet would give her away.

    Give me a map and I’ll build you a city. Give me a pencil and I  cs on t o ttlements along terranean coast—Gazala, tobruk, Mersa Matru ted  ried to lose ourselves in. “My task is to describe briefly tions er take us back to t as it existed t is to ot Kensington Gore. But you do not find adultery in tes of ty. Our room never appears in tailed reports  of ory.

    In treet of imported parrots in Cairo one is ored by almost articulate birds. tle in roe palanquins across ts. Forty-day journeys, after t by slaves or picked like floorial gardens and to enter t is trade. tship.

    e stood among ty t o her.

    ouc t.

    “If I gave you my life, you . ouldn’t you?” I didn’t say anything.