The Secret of the Sahara Kufara

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. I feel this Libyan story needs a few words of explanation, for owing to the peculiar circumstances in which it was undertaken it is not the usual consecutive and comprehensive book of travel compiled after the return of an expedition wherein the traveller is able to review the journey as a whole. Reading such works, I have so often found myself asking, And then what happened? or I wonder what he felt at the moment? Well, this is a very simple account of what happened next. In no way does it pretend to be a scientific record of exploration, for, owing to the ever urgent necessity of secrecy and disguise, the use of most instruments was an impossibility.

The spirit of the story changes with the mood and the method of its development. It was written in so many odd ways at so many odd times - under a scented sage-bush in the sunset while the slaves were putting up our tent, or huddled inside a flea-bag when the nights were very cold. Sometimes, when life was exciting, it was scribbled on a camel under the shelter of a barracan! Twice, at least, the last chapter according to all human calculations was completed in the hope that the tattered copy books would somehow find their way back to civilization and the fate of the expedition be known up till its last moments. It is a daily record of success and failure, of a few months in an alien world, showing how much of that world's spirit was absorbed.

I feel this Libyan story needs a few words of explanation, for owing to the peculiar circumstances in which it was undertaken it is not the usual consecutive and comprehensive book of travel compiled after the return of an expedition wherein the traveller is able to review the journey as a whole. Reading such works, I have so often found myself asking, "And then what happened?" or "I wonder what he felt at the moment?" Well, this is a very simple account of "what happened next." In no way does it pretend to be a scientific record of exploration, for, owing to the ever urgent necessity of secrecy and disguise, the use of most instruments was an impossibility.The spirit of the story changes with the mood and the method of its development. It was written in so many odd ways at so many odd times - under a scented sage-bush in the sunset while the slaves were putting up our tent, or huddled inside a flea-bag when the nights were very cold. Sometimes, when life was exciting, it was scribbled on a camel under the shelter of a barracan! Twice, at least, the last chapter according to all human calculations was completed in the hope that the tattered copy books would somehow find their way back to civilization and the fate of the expedition be known up till its last moments. It is a daily record of success and failure, of a few months in an alien world, showing how much of that world's spirit was absorbed.