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 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 traverse of the Majabat al Koubra, the "Great Crossing"or Saharan
'Empty Quarter' from Mauritania to Algeria. From here we continued east right up 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, now regularly leading a two-week tour to the remote Amguid Crater site in Algeria's Mouydir Mountains. I'm also preparing a longer, one-month camel trek from a remote waterhole out in the Tanezrouft plain to the Ahnet and Immidir mountains.
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 eight books including Rough
Guide Australia (9th
edition October 2009 - (the spin-off 'East Coast Australia' title won Travel Guide of the Year in 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, published in 2009.
I contribute
regularly to the Wexas Travellers Handbook 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 (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 2008 I substantially updated the second edition of Trailblazer's Pennine Way guidebook (left); the first such book to feature downloadable GPS waypoints for Britain's longest Long Distance Footpath. In summer 2009 I did the same job on the Coast to Coast title.
Expedition and project consultation
O
ver the last 25 years I've provided
advice to many expeditions, TV production companies and adventure
tour operators looking to work in the Sahara. They include:
• Explore Worldwide
• Simoon Travel
• The Scientific Exploration Society
• Fact checking articles for National Geographic magazine
• Many TV companies including Prominent TV, Michael
Palin's production company.
• Channel 4 - a reality show concept
• BBC's 'blue-chip' Planet Earth series as well as other undefined projects
• The 2009 Skycar Expedition (above right)
• A trans-Sahara Guinness cycling record completed in March 2011
• Work with a major long-term EU-funded scientific project in the Sahara
• Consultation for ITN (News)
• Safety and survival briefing for FAAM air crew (atmospheric research)
I've 
also provided informal route advice on such events as the planned 2011 London to Cape Town Rally and the successful London to Cape Town record attempt (left) which in October2010 managed to drive 10,000-miles across 20 countries in less than 12 days. On both types of events the choice of route was critical to success or cancellation.
On the way I've also helped set several hare-brained schemes straight, have been approached
by authors of romantic fiction and Hollywood scriptwriters
to clarify details in their Sahara-based research, and even reassured worried parents about their siblings setting off on a Saharan adventure.
I am also occasionally asked to advise on expeditions or projects which can range from: 
• Explaining what's possible in the ever-changing Saharan security environment with which I am very familiar, having attended security briefings and provided feedback at the British Foreign Office.
• Advising individuals or organisations where not to waste their money, effort and time
• Offering individuals a complete package where vehicles are acquired, prepared and delivered to the desert so busy clients can fly in, have their desert adventure and fly home.
• Providing customised briefings for those undertaking challenging projects in the Sahara.
• Practical desert survival planning and strategies that bear little resemblance to 'SAS Survival Handbooks' or TV shows from the likes of Bear Grylls.
If you think I can help you on something similar, please get in touch. In many cases the feasibility of your project - or whether I can or you need me to actually help you with it - can be established in a couple of emails. Otherwise my fees are modest and include ongoing support following an initial meeting.
Talks,
articles and editing
I've submitted expedition reports as well
regularly chaired or co-presented at the annual Explore seminar at the Royal
Geographical Society and have been both
featured in, and written for Geographical magazine,
the Independent, National
Geographic Adventure magazine and Guardian Online. 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 also regularly give presentations at The Adventure Travel Show in London where
I've been 
interviewed for BBC Radio, have presented talks for the Oxford University Explorers Society and have been invited to do the same at Eton College.
I
also contribute to the US-based Overland
Journal magazine, was invited to the 2011 Overland Expo
in Arizona and gave a talk on a sea kayaking
trip in Western Australia at the Scottish Canoe Show.
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 (pictured left). I've cycled twice in the Himalaya with ACTH author Steve Lord and in 2011 I was also invited to be an advisor for the Ted Simon Foundation.
Films
and TV
With my books established, since 2000
I've
produced 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 (right - watch on youtube).
Photography
I don'claim to have any special talent or flashy SLRs but once in a while
I happen to be in the right place at the right time. As well as illustrating the covers and colour spreads of my books and books which I have updated, a couple of my photos have reached the finals of photo competitions. The cover of Gorge Riders dvd, shot at the Knox Slide in the Hamersley Ranges (also featured in the Rough Guide) was a finalist in some category or other in the Kendal Mountain Film Festival Photo Competition in 2006 - and a photo I shot of some grazing deer in the Lake District in 2009 was a finalist in a wildlife photography competition. In 2011 an 8-page report on an Algeria tour of mine made the front cover of 4x4 magazine
Recent
projects and adventures
After three years work Overlanders' Handbook (right) was published in March 2011 and so far has been widely praised. A much expanded sixth edition of the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook is underway and due for publication in mid-2012.
Once that was out I took a month's sea kayaking and packrafting in Australia and came back to re-issued Desert Travels as an e-book for amazon Kindle for a couple of pounds and for a few months it's been outselling both Bill Bryson and Michael Palin. A new dedicated website covers the mapping and images which don't appear on the Kindle version.
I've recently completed
a 24-day camel trek in the Sahara (more here) with much interest in future camel treks for 2012-13 (see the tours page for more) and just returned from a 4000-mile, three week update in Morocco on a BMW F650GS loaned by BMW Motorrad. Morocco Overland II will be out this autumn.
Contact
updated
April 2012
