[Sahara Overland] gets right to the heart of desert travel
Michael Palin
Sahara |
CHRIS SCOTT
books
• films • tours – guide

|
The first thing we did was buy the
Adventure Motorcycling Handbook
Ewan McGregor
The Long Way Round |

Frequently described as travellers' bibles, Sahara
Overland and the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook ('AMH')
have confirmed travel writer Chris Scott as an
expert in his fields.
Indeed, in 1997 I originated
the term 'adventure motorcycling' to describe
overland travel by motorcycle - these days
fastest growing arm in motorcycling. Since 1982 I've
undertaken over thirty expeditions
through the Sahara - from Egypt to the Atlantic - by motorcycle, 4WD, M.A.N truck, 2WD saloon
car, bush taxi and lately by camel caravan. Between them they've given
me an unparalleled knowledge of the practicalities
of desert travel across the entire Sahara, both
as a tourist, a driver, rider and trekker and as a tour leader.
In 2000
and 2001 I organised and led the first UK escorted
4WD and motorcycle tours to
return to Algeria and Libya. In 2003 I led the Desert Riders expedition across unvisited parts of southern Algeria to the Tenere Desert's Lost Tree. In 2006 I
lead a tour for High & Wild to Egypt's Gilf Kebir (my third visit there), as well as organising an exclusive tour to view the Saharan
Eclipse in Niger. In the same year I
completed the second known crossing of the Majabat al Koubra or Saharan
'Empty Quarter' from Mauritania to Algeria. From here we continued east to the Libyan border, so crossing half the width of the Sahara. On the way we collected dust samples in Mali for Oxford University's Centre for the Environment and contributed to the Degree Confluence Project.
I
continue to run or lead tours as well as plan my own explorations
in little-known parts of the Sahara. Since 2007 I've extended my experience to camel trekking, leading a two-week tour in early 2009 to the remote Amguid Crater site in Algeria's Mouydir Mountains. For 2010 I'm preparing a longer, one-month camel trek from the Mouydir to the Hoggar.
Books & Web
Since
1984 my travel articles have featured
regularly in major
4WD, motorcycle and travel publications in
the UK, Australia, Poland and the US. To
date I've authored six books including Rough
Guide Australia (9th
edition due October 2009), my 'Saharan
memoirs' Desert
Travels, the Adventure
Motorcycling Handbook (also
in Russian with
other translations due), my acclaimed
700-page 'desert bible',  Sahara
Overland, (also in German with
other translations due) and Morocco Overland.
I contribute
regularly to the Wexas Travellers Handbook (latest 12th
edition, 2008) and In January 1998 established both sahara-overland.com,
still the only English-language website of
its kind, as well as adventure-motorcycling.com.
I
also contributed to four- and wrote one of the Rough
Guide
25s 'Ultimate Experience' booklets
(below right) released
in 2007 to mark Rough Guides' 25th anniversary.
All my contributions
were then featured in the best-selling compendium title
released later that year: 1000
Ultimate
Travel Experiences; Make the Most of Your
Time on Earth (left). My features
included cameling, rock art, motorcycling and
driving in the Sahara, as well as sea kayaking,
rafting, sailing and several other adventurous
activities in Australia.
In the Spring of 2008 I updated the second edition of Trailblazer's Pennine Way guidebook (right); the first such book to feature downloadable GPS waypoints for Britain's longest Long Distance Footpath.
Talks,
articles, consulting and editing
I've submitted expedition reports as well
as chaired and co-presented seminars at the Royal
Geographical Society and have been
both
featured in, and written for Geographical magazine,
the Independent and National
Geographic Adventure magazine. In 1996 I was even featured alongside the late Wilfred Thesiger as part of an 'Explorers' fashion' feature in Esquire magazine, and the desert boots I had custom made for Desert Riders Project now feature in the Altberg Bootmakers line up.
I regularly present talks at
adventure travel shows where
I've been interviewed for BBC
Radio. In 2007 I
contributed to the US-based Overland
Journal magazine
and gave a talk on a sea kayaking
trip in Shark Bay, Western Australia at the Scottish Canoe
Show.
Over the years I've regularly provided
advice to many expeditions, adventure
tour operators. They include Explore,
the Scientific Exploration Society and
TV production companies such as Michael
Palin's Sahara,
various departments at the BBC, including
the 'blue-chip' Planet Earth series
broadcast in 2006 and most recently, the 2009 Skycar Expedition.
I've also helped put a few hare-brained schemes straight, and have even been approached
by authors of romantic fiction and scriptwriters
to clarify details in their Sahara-based research.
Between writing my own books I've also edited and contributed to Trailblazer's new cycle-touring guides: The Adventure Cycle Touring Handbook ('ACTH') and Himalaya by Bike. In 2008 I joined ACTH author Stephen Lord on an 800-km ride through the Karakoram and Hindu Kush, (links to youtube) from Kashgar in China to Chitral in northern Pakistan.
Films
and TV
With my books established, since 2000
I've
been producing occasional dvds to accompany them. The
first of these, Algeria 2000 (re-released on
dvd in 2006)
was featured on Sky TV's Destination
Adventure series, followed by Call
of the Wild (Yukon, 2001) and Desert
Riders(Sahara, 2003) - both subsequently
broadcast on National Geographic Channel as
well as Moto TV in 2008. Gorge
Riders, a motorcycling and canyoneering
dvd set northwest Australia was released in
July 2005 and in early 2006 I released
an updated version of my instructional Desert
Driving 2 dvd (left) to accompany Sahara
Overland. In 2004 I appeared as a judge for a 'Sand Racer' project on the then popular Channel 4 TV show, Scraphead Challenge.
Recent
and future
projects
In early 2008 I led another motorcycle tour to the Algerian Sahara which was followed by research by motorcycle and 4WD for a new title, Morocco
Overland published in June 2009.
In January 2009
I led a
two-week camel trek for London-based
Simoon Travel to Algeria's Amguid
Crater, and am in the early stages of planning a big motorcycling trip from Korea back via Russia, Mongolia, Tibet and Iran to gather material for the next edition of the Adventure
Motorcycling Handbook. There's another Overlanders' book in the pipeline too and a return to the Empty Quarter in 2010 as part of a climate research expedition.

Contact
updated
July 2009 |