January 26 - North Africa feature
In the February 2012 issue of 4x4 magazine.
January 22 - Camel trekking in Algeria
Just back from 3 weeks camelling in the Immidir and Hoggar - all up around 200 miles with a great group and cook plus a new agency, Ben Kada, who did a great job. No security issues that we could see, though things were going on, I heard later. We saw no tourists except one group in the Immidir near Arak. In the Immidir we took the next canyon along which meant just an hour's climb up to the crater, and we stopped off at Aguelman Rahla on the way out - a nice spot.
Hoggar was a new route for me, about 70 miles in an inverted 'V', NNE to Assekrem and back SSE to the car rendezvous. Some fantastic towers and rocky landscapes up there plus the ever-reliable spectacle of Assekrem, but not quite as untouched as the Immidir. Report and slideshow from the Immidir here, Hoggar slideshow here.
Dates for more camel tours out there shortly.
I'm doing a talk on Sahara camelling this Saturday at the Adventure Travel Show at London Olympia.
December 28 - TSH to be sealed from Algeria to Niger
It's been announced that work will soon start on completing the last unsealed 225-km section of the Trans-Sahara Highway from In Guezzam on the southern border of Algeria, to Arlit in Niger. Work will begin next year with Algerian support.
Construction commenced on 400-km continuation of the TSH from Tamanrasset to In Guezzam in the early 1980s, but was only finished some 25 years later. In the meantime in 2005 or so Chinese road builders in Mauritania completed a brand new 480-km road from Nouadhibou near the Moroccan border to Nouakchott in less than two years, so making the first sealed road across of the Sahara - although an unmade section of a few kilometres remains between the southern exit point of Morocco and the Mauritanian immigration post. And in the east in Sudan, within the last year or so a sealed road was completed from Khartoum to Wadi Halfa across the Nubian desert. The port of Wadi Halfa is the Sudanese immigration point with Egypt at the southern end of Lake Nasser, where barges transport vehicles to Aswan over a day or two. There's occasionally talk of opening a regular land route between the two countries.
Back in Algeria in 2012 work is due for completion on the 750-km water pipeline (left) from an aquifer north of In Salah to water-starved Tamanrasset, as well as the 1200-kilometre 11-billion dollar+ motorway across the north of Algeria (right) between the Tunisia and Morocco. This road has been described it the largest single public works project in the world.
December 16 - Morocco Special in ABR magazine
Check out my two-page feature on the best one-week rides in southern Morocco in Issue 12 of ABR magazine.
December 5 - The mystery of the Cathedral solved • Algerian visas suspended
Unlike most people, I've always wondered about the actual location of the cover of my old Desert Travels book (left). The picture, with the 101 and bikes camped below a striking, cathedral-like formation, was shot in 1988. I knew the vague area but it's famous for its many unusual rock formations. The cathedral could be anywhere.
Now, 23 years later, we have GPS and internet and so with a bit of help from knowledgeable Saharans, the location has been pinned down.
A more important matter: the issue of Algerian tourist visas in most European countries has been suspended for those intending to travel in the 'Grand Sud' (desert). One assumes it's a temporary measure following the kidnappings in Mali, threats made by AQIM and the proliferation of armed mercenaries fleeing from Libya into the central Sahara.
November 24 - New 200k map of the Hoggar • killing and kidnappings in Mali
Review on the Maps page of a great area of the Algerian Sahara that has just re-opened.
Two French 'geologists' (or private military contractors working to release other French hostages - pictured right) grabbed in the middle of the night from a Hombori hotel (#15 on this map), a couple of hours west of Gao and south of the Niger river, a region thought until now to be less risky. More here.
And less than a day later, three tourists - Dutch, Swedish and Brit/RSA - are kidnapped in broad daylight from a hotel in nearby Timbuktu and a fourth, a German, is shot dead while trying to resist. An early BBC news report here, more active HUBB forum thread here.
This now means that 13 hostages from five abductions and of 6 nationalities and are currently in captivity, most probably in north Mali.
November 20 - Sahara XT500 1982
New report on the first trip.
November 14 - Kindle/iPad version of Desert Travels • all Sahara routes 1982-2011
I've released an e-book version of Desert Travels, a travelogue covering my 
early travels in the Sahara, mostly on motorcycles and originally written in the mid-1990s.
Check out how it's selling on amazon by clicking here.
Because a Kindle book just displays text, there's a new website to go with the e-book with all the missing maps, pictures and all the rest.
You can buy D Travels off amazon in the UK, France, Germany and the US for the price of a cup of coffee - so what are you waiting for!
While reminiscing I also made and uploaded a map depicting all the Sahara routes I've done over the years. As you'll see, still a lot of gaps but not much chance of filling them as things stand these days.
November 1 - Sahara travel round up [updated Dec 10]
In recent weeks the Libyan NTC prevailed while supporters and members of the Gaddafi family have either fled to Algeria and Niger, been killed or, in Saif's case, captured in southern Libya trying to get to Niger. The NATO operation has ended, but it's unlikely that desert tourism will return here any time soon - there is too much to do in the north. And the adjacent Djado, Aïr and Tenere region of Niger won't be helped by these events, despite an optimistic announcement in August that Agadez was ready for tourism.
Two Spanish and an Italian aid workes were kidnapped from the Saharawi area around Tindouf in the far west of Algeria. More news on that here. It's since turned out to be a breakaway group of AQIM.
There have been elections in Tunisia, progress in post-revolutionary Egypt seems to be stalling (advance visas are now required) and Mauritania is fully engaged in tackling AQIM bases along it borders. I recently attended the second Sahel security meeting at the FCO for travel operators, but can't say I learned much from them this year, though some of the delegates were well informed.
Morocco remains as stable as ever, notwithstanding the very occasional bombing targetting tourists, and in Mauritania, the main desert pistes as featured in Sahara Overland remain open, though the far north, east and southeast of the country are areas of military activity and are best avoided.
Above all, the events in Libya will shake up travel across the entire Sahara, and in the short term most probably not in a good way. For better or worse that regime kept a tight grip on internal security, while merrily stirring things up (and then magnanamously settling them) in neighbouring countries - mostly especially Niger. Now the spread of looted weapons across the Sahara, as well as the flight of militant Tuaregs loyal to the deposed regime are bringing about predictions of increased AQIM attacks and a return to Tuareg rebellions in Mali and Niger.
One bright bit of news in this regard suggests that Tuareg returning to north Mali (many after spending years in the recently defeated Libyan army) are telling AQIM based there to hop it. The fall of Gaddafi could obliquely lead to the expulsion of AQIM from north Mali - and there aren't so many places they could go other than Western Sahara.
Country info and Trans-Sahara Routes have been updated, where possible, as has the Sahara kidnappings map.
June 1 - Trans-Sahara Routes
Following the news that the Venice to Alexandria ferry (via Syria) was suspended (see this for the latest), options shrank a little more for crossing the eastern Sahara. With Libya as it is, getting to Egypt now means running the gauntlet through Syria to get to the Aqaba ferry. Central Sahara after southern Algeria does not look so secure, but the western route via Mauritania is fine. Problem is, if heading for South Africa, it means you're committed to the western route via Angola; few have crossed over east to Sudan from Chad, and as Sudan's official separation approaches, a new civil war could kick off there (see this).
There's more on Trans-Sahara Routes here
February 25 - Algeria trip report • some hostages released in Niger
Just back from 3 weeks in Algeria with five 4WDs. Trip report here with an illustrated map. And here is a movie.
Three of the seven hostages grabbed at Arlit in September 2010 were released in Niger today; a French and the two African nationals. Four French remain in custody, as well as the Italian woman mentioned below.
February 4 - Italian kidnapped in southwest Algeria • AQIM raid on Nouakchott
A 53-year old Italian womanwas kidnapped near Alidemma arch south of Djanet a day or two ago, and is now said to be in Niger or even Mali. Follow updates here. This is the first tourist kidnapping in Algeria since 2003, presumably by an AQIM group.
Ironically, in response to political agitation across the Maghreb, Algeria announced that the 19 year-old state of emergency, which among other things forbids public demonstrations, is to be lifted very soon. News here.
Earlier this week a convoy of AQIM vehicles (suicide car bombers?) from Mali crossed southern Mauritania in an attempted to assassinate the Mauritanian president. They got as far as Nouakchott where one explosive-laden car blew up during engagement with the military. More here.
AQIM seem to be piling on the pressure following last month's abductions of two French nationals from Niamey which soon ended in their deaths as detailed below.
January 13 - Algerian visas
... have become a lot more complicated in the UK. But with the details shown here - not so clearly spelled out on the London consulate's website - you need not get caught out. Start the process six weeks before you leave.
January 12 - Two French killed in Mali following kidnap in Niamey - updated
Two young French nationals, Antoine de Léocour and Vincent Delory were grabbed by what has been confirmed as an AQIM operation from a restaurant in Niamey on Friday night January 7. They were found dead the next day in Mali, following an engagement with French helicopters. The Mali border which is just 200km north of Niamey and clarification about what may have happened is beginning to emerge. After an earlier operation by Nigerienne forces failed to stop the escape into Mali, French special forces were mobilised out of Ouagadougou or possibly Menaka in Mali.
The suggestion has been that the young men were executed by the abductors, but evidence seems to show at least one was killed by a rocket explosion during the French attack, the implication being that the French are taking a very hard line on chasing and, as they call it, 'neutralising' abductors. Ten days later or so, an account of what probably happened is given here. Léocour, a 25-year-old aid worker (though not based in Niger), was due to be married this week in Niger.
Follow developments here.
Five other French (plus two other nationals), abducted from northern Niger last September are still captive in north Mali. The last three kidnappings for westerners in the Sahara have all included French nationals in western Niger, and possibly as a result of French government travel advice, French visits to southern Algeria have also finally collapsed, according to a recent report in an Algerian newspaper.
Click this for the updated kidnappings map.
Archived News 2008-10
