ter us, little i by tern o for o tietury ting of eyes. Sileeentury 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 fortable iquette of taxis, t    of bus ductors.

        ravel by local trains from toy meetings, ten lost, tickets misplaced, ging 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 someos ture for ily critical but never imperti. tay close to ts, and even obsessive assumptions are presented modestly.

        My jour from Sokum on terrao El Obeid in tracks of t a number and variety of iing geographical problems....

        tion and researed in turer recorded ty people in i Antarctica. Similar losses ireme    or orm are announced s “iing geograpilization in e 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 i, asked tions in

        By t. “/ so add a fes raised iing discussion on teograp oasis of Zerzura was found by Ladislaus de Almasy and his panions.

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

        I vie dista dead knig liquid, one pillo    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 led ’s interior. Arab ers iury 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 cer.

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

        e fave 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 jouro 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 m    of our tents at five. too cold to sleep. e stepped to in t in t stars. tea. tes aloones. e ate breakfast and tea.

        er orm t    us out of clear m, ing from noually     is as team-pipes, is of steam are puffing out. ttle spurts and s force. It seems as t o some upting force berike 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    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 saud 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 arou, tos    cetera. As I acked up    t it I saion of to be a small lump, a dog possibly, uied up, sleeping there.

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

        Looking for Zerzura.    and    and

        Not seeiy 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 terbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and t. Its caravans, trange ramblis 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 ao any nation.

        or

        I fet 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 iempt 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 ated Arabic. Later Bermann says “like ts,” quoting us. e talk to , and    doe, is still not to reveal ts of t ters.

        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    slip into a name as if s sempted o leave sument. My great desire o remain t in a place uries—a fourteentury army, a tebu caravan, the Senussi raiders of

        And iimes—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 ists 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 bee vain o    eyes, tro 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 rid he could fly and he had a plane.

        Clifto 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 e try Club,” he announced.

        I ty 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     eous about it. Sood ted in her mane of hair.

        o tten books about dune formation, t culture of deserts. e seemed to be ied only in t could not be bougerest to tside    latitudes, or about a 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 returo 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    spectatod    praise;    Millions of spiritual Creatures : en from teep    Of ec ial voices to t air,    Sole, or responsive eaco ote    Singing t Creator...

        t o    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 u s look. It seemed to be pt. 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     t o ttlements along terranean coast—Gazala, tobruk, Mersa Matru ted    ried to lose ourselves in. “My task is to describe briefly tioake 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.

        I 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 e 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.
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