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NEWS & VIEWS
| If members have points to add to this page please send
them to davidnhall@btinternet.com The Web Master cannot guarantee
to publish everything sent. Photographs, especially where
illustrating a point, are welcome. This page was last amended:
Friday, 18 May 2012 |
Back to the Sahara in October 2012
Andras is off to the Sahara again in October 2012. He will be taking
an expedition to the Tassili N'Ajjer where there are some of the most
fabulous rock paintings. See the record of his last trip:
http://www.fjexpeditions.com/frameset/tassili11.htm.
If you would like to join Andras please contact him on
andras@fjexpeditions.com
Desert Dinner 25 November 2011
General Sir Anthony Pigott hosted the 30th Desert Dinner in the
Indian Army Room of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on Friday 25
November 2011 with Richard Snailham in the chair. 38 members and
 guests attended, and John Hare gave an
informative talk, bringing us up to date on his work on wild camels in
remote parts of China. Peter Drake had made all the
detailed and excellent arrangements with Sandhurst.
Joint Rain Forest and Desert Clubs to visit the
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew for an evening on Wednesday 16 May 2012.
Each Club will have 70 invitations. There will be a buffet supper.
Further information will be available on this web site. It is a date
for diaries.
Desert books for Members' Room at the RGS
David Hall has placed part of his collection of books about deserts on the
shelves in the RGS Members' Room. He is keeping some, such as
Bagnold's Libyan Sands and his Physics of blown Sand and Desert
Dunes for a later date. Other members of the Club may wish to add
to the collection.
A member's new book
Eamonn P B Gearon has just completed a new book The Sahara: A Cultural
History and publication is expected early next year when details
will be given on this web site.
Robin Hanbury-Tenison has suggested further reading in a list at the end of
Barnaby Rogerson's list.
John Hare's 2011 Expedition. John Hare searched for
and found wild camels in the Taklamakan Desert, crossing extremely rugged
country. See his report and a couple of
photographs
Clayton's craters
The craters in the Libyan Desert near Gebel Uweinat have long been a source
of interest. Dr Kenneth Sandford wrote them up after the 1934 Bagnold
Expedition. András Zboray provides much interesting detail and
photographs at
http://www.fjexpeditions.com/frameset/craters.htm.
Gebel Uweinat November 2009
András Zboray took a team to Gebel Uweinat in November 2009 and spent eight
days trekking in the upper part of the massif. See the update section
of his web site
http://www.fjexpeditions.com/ again with superb photographs.
Desert expedition 2010
András Zboray is planning two expeditions in the autumn 2010, one to Egypt
focused mainly on WWII history and remains scattered about in the Gilf-Great
Sand Sea area.
http://www.fjexpeditions.com/expeditions/plans/oct10/oct10.htm
 Dinner
at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew This photograph was
taken when the Desert Dining Club and the Rain Forest Club met for dinner at
Kew on 16 July 1986. 37 members of the Rain Forest Club and 39 members
of the Desert Dining Club attended. The glass house behind is
the Princess of Wales Conservatory, and it had only recently been opened,
but provided climates for both clubs.
Some recollections of members.
Report of visit to Gebels Arkenu and to
Bahari in SE Libya by András Zboray. Splendid photographs of fabulous
rock paintings and carvings, and interesting reports and comments. Go
to:
http://www.fjexpeditions.com/expeditions/past/oct03/oct03.htm
Report of David Lyon's 2004 trip
click here. He
intends returning for a long journey when the situation in Niger
improves.
Members' new books
John Hare has produced a new volume about his recent travels in
the Gobi: The Mysteries of the Gobi - Searching for Wild Camels and
Lost Cities in the Heart of Asia. It is published by I.B.
Tauris ISBN 978-1-84511-512-8. Price £17.99.
Attached is a blurb and
author's biography.
Andrew Goudie has produced Wheels across
the desert - exploration of the Libyan Desert by motorcar 1916 - 1942.
Published by Silphium Books, an imprint of the Society for Libyan
Studies. ISBN 978-1-900971-07-2.
John Wright's latest volume on Libya is The
emergence of Libya: Selected Historical Essays. Published by
Silphium Books, an imprint of the Society for Libyan Studies.
Professor Diane Gifford-Gonzalez assumed general editorship of
the monograph on the death of Professor J Desmond Clark: Adrar Bous -
Archaeology of a Central Saharan Granite Ring Structure Complex in Niger.
Important contributions are made by Professor Martin Williams and
Professor Andrew Smith who worked on the expedition. David
N Hall provides a preface. Published by
The Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. ISBN 978-9-0747-5243-5.
It illustrates the worthiness of all the work to all members of the
expedition, some of whom are members of the Desert Dining Club. Book list - other deserts
Does any member have interesting reading lists of particular deserts to
contribute?
Registered name now
www.desertdiningclub.org.uk. Adam Gibson, a long
standing member, has generously created and donated the above name to the
web site. He has also provided an email address to be used for
contacting the Web Master:
info@desertdiningclub.org.uk.
Know more about camels. They can
swim! John Hare was the first to offer material for the web site.
 Those
who missed
hearing his account of an exciting camel journey in Kenya, can read about it
here. He also provides a
newsletter
from the Wild Camel Protection Foundation of which he is Founding Chairman.
Picture of racing baby camels which followed a camel polo match in Laikipia,
Kenya to raise funds for the wild camel cause.
Google is now good for Desert Dining Club!
Enter 'desert Dining Club', and Google brings you to this site.
It now beats all others.
Les Enfants de l'Air
Christine Mills was unable to attend the Desert Dinner at
the Army and Navy Club (The Rag) last
October because she was in Agadez where she works with Les Enfants de
l'Air. Their web site is
www.enfants-air.com.
Libyan Desert
Back in
December 2006 Tertia Barnett gave an illustrated lecture to the Society for
Libyan Studies (www.britac.ac.uk/institutes/libya/)
on 8,000 Years of Rock Art in Libya. Her work is described
in Libyan Studies Vol 37:95-116, and her web site:
www.libyarockart.com.
Fish in the Ténéré
A discussion note with questions posed and comments received from Mike
Saunders and Martin Williams
click here
Society for Libyan Studies:
www.britac.ac.uk/institutes/libya
List of dates of venues
The History page of the web site now has a link to a full list
of venues for dinners in the Club's first 25
years.
Does anyone know the year of the joint event with the Rain Forest Club.
Please respond to
info@desertdiningclub.org.uk
Other relevant clubs
The Arctic Club:
www.arcticclub.org.uk
The Geographical Club:
www.thegeographicalclub.org.uk
The Rain Forest Club:
http://www.tropicalforests.ox.ac.uk/members/rainforest-club
Other sites of possible interest:
Do you have an interesting site to be added?
University of Manchester desert database
http://www.narg.org.uk/africandatabase/
UMEP Global Desert Outlook
http://www.unep.org/geo/gdoutlook/110.asp
Desert Fox Overland
http://www.desertfoxoverland.co.uk/
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