The Secret of the Sahara

'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.'

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'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 shade of a barracan!' So Rosita Forbes describes the course of recording the day's events of her travels in the Libyan Desert. It is her intention to rediscover two lost oases, following in the footsteps of Gerhardt Rohlfs, the first European to explore the area. In 'The Secret of the Sahara: Kufara', Forbes tells the story of her expedition: the wrong turnings, the difficulties and the delights of travelling in the desert. Her story features innumerable characters she met along the way; those who served and those who hindered her journey.