Stepping away from the deserts of the western US for a moment, allow me to recommend a fine book about early motorized exploration of the Libyan Desert of central and southern Libya and western Egypt. The book is "The Lost Oasis: The Desert War and the Hunt for Zerzura", by Saul Kelly. Kelly describes the history of automobile-supported exploration and mapping of this desert, roughly the size of the Indian Subcontinent, starting in the late 19th Century. The pace picked up considerably in World War I with the British Army's "Light Car Patrols", and between the wars a core group of British Army officers stationed in Egypt famously spent many months of their leave and much of their own money outfitting Ford Model A cars with "wide sand-tyres" of a whopping 3.5" tread width. Lead by Penrose Medal awardee Ralph Bagnold, they pioneered closed-circuit expansion chambers to keep boiled-out radiator fluid from escaping, navigation by sun-compass, off-road driving techniques, and discovered entire mountain ranges not visited by man since the desertification of the Sahara between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago. Bagnold became a Fellow of Royal Geographical Society, and was awarded the Penrose Medal by the Geological Society of America in 1970, in recognition of his pioneering work on formation and migration of desert dune systems.
When World War II broke out, Bagnold and his former desert exploration buddies were reunited and formed the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG). The LRDG outfitted far more modern vehicles, such as half-ton to one-ton rated 2-wheel drive Chevy pickups, with the latest in sun compasses, sand channels, long-distance radio apparatus, and .50 caliber Browning machine guns and routinely traveled hundreds and hundreds of miles across the desert, supported by only by what they could carry and by resupplying at strategically placed dumps, to perform recon and to maintain a "road watch" along the coast highway, where Rommel's supply line activities could be observed with strong implications as to his plans. The occasional "beat-up" of supply columns was subsequently Americanized and embellished to become historical background for the 1960s TV series "The Rat Patrol". Bagnolds pre-war and wartime interaction with Count Almasy of Hungary was embellished and made into water-cooler chat by the book and movie "The English Patient", where certain real-life rock-art sites, such as the Cave of Swimmers, are described.
In addition to the Kelly book, William Kennedy Shaw was an officer in LRDG and wrote their official history in 1943, following the disbanding of the outfit once Rommel was defeated and left North Africa. Kennedy Shaw's book is not politically correct in the descriptions of native populations and of the Italian military, Rommel's allies in North Africa (actually, Rommel came to North Africa to save the Italians from being routed by the British). Despite the rough language and racist commentary, Kennedy Shaw's book "Long Range Desert Group: WWII Action in North Africa", is a great read on how the LRDG was formed, their transport (sort of a "how to Wander the West in a 1940 2-wheel drive Chevy"), their logistics and navigation skills, and their underlying love of the desert and exploring it.
Here in the 21st century, a Hungarian by the name of Andras Zboray runs a website devoted to desert exploration which can be found at www.fjexpeditions.com. Zboray runs annual tours in between outbreaks of armed violence. His writing and photography are first-rate, and one could spend many, many hours just noodling around his website. Plus, if you contact him via email and express interest in his work, he'll send you an email Christmas card every year!
Foy
