Egypt
- Long Range Desert Group
Egypt Daily Star News (Peter A. Carrigan) More slightly off-topic themes - this time it's the Pharaohs' Rally, but the author has made mention of the Long Range Desert Group who are certainly an important and intriguing part of Egypt's modern...
- Book Review: The Secret Life Of Laszlo Almasy
This is a very informal review of John Bierman's The Secret Life of Laszlo Almasy, the Real English Patient by John Bierman (Penguin 2004). As a review, it is a trifle long - but that's the advantage of owning your own blog :-) For those who...
- Daily Photo - Wadi Abd El Malek
It will come as no great surprise to regular visitors to the blog to find yet more photos of the Gilf Kebir haunting these pages, but the Wadi Abd el Malek is of particular interest for a number of reasons. Wadi Abd el Malek is a long wadi which penetrates...
- Egyptian Rock Art
http://travel.independent.co.uk/africa/northern/story.jsp?story=641863 In an article entitled "In the footsteps of Count Laszlo" a trip into the Western (Libyan) Desert is described by writer and poet Robert Twigger. The destination is the Gilf Kebir,...
- The Gay "english Patient"
Laszlo Almasy was an explorer known by the Bedouin as "Father of the sand" who explored two million square kilometers of the Saharan desert mapping and making a number of discoveries including stone age painted dugouts. Hollywood loosely based the movie...
Egypt
Photo for Today. Oh Dear.
Trouble at Three Castles (west of Gilf Kebir).
We went on without the car, its driver and our cook, who stayed to
wait for help to arrive from Cairo.
Fortunately we had satellite phones so the situation was well under control and help
was soon sent from Cairo.
In the meantime, the head driver did the cooking and he was excellent!
If you were to look for irony this would be the place to find it.
In the Second World War the Long Range Desert Group parked up a set of
vehicles at Three Castles as a reserve, and they were found by Laszlo Almasy.
The Hungarian Almasy (used loosely to form the character of "The English Patient")
was working for the Axis forces and poured fine desert sand into the fuel tanks. He ensured that
different quantities were added so that the vehicles broke down at different
places along their journey. He knew the founder of the LRDG,
Ralph Bagnold, very well, because they were friends before the war.
A fascinating part of the history of both the Western Desert and the Second World War.
We went on without the car, its driver and our cook, who stayed to
wait for help to arrive from Cairo.
Fortunately we had satellite phones so the situation was well under control and help
was soon sent from Cairo.
In the meantime, the head driver did the cooking and he was excellent!
If you were to look for irony this would be the place to find it.
In the Second World War the Long Range Desert Group parked up a set of
vehicles at Three Castles as a reserve, and they were found by Laszlo Almasy.
The Hungarian Almasy (used loosely to form the character of "The English Patient")
was working for the Axis forces and poured fine desert sand into the fuel tanks. He ensured that
different quantities were added so that the vehicles broke down at different
places along their journey. He knew the founder of the LRDG,
Ralph Bagnold, very well, because they were friends before the war.
A fascinating part of the history of both the Western Desert and the Second World War.
- Long Range Desert Group
Egypt Daily Star News (Peter A. Carrigan) More slightly off-topic themes - this time it's the Pharaohs' Rally, but the author has made mention of the Long Range Desert Group who are certainly an important and intriguing part of Egypt's modern...
- Book Review: The Secret Life Of Laszlo Almasy
This is a very informal review of John Bierman's The Secret Life of Laszlo Almasy, the Real English Patient by John Bierman (Penguin 2004). As a review, it is a trifle long - but that's the advantage of owning your own blog :-) For those who...
- Daily Photo - Wadi Abd El Malek
It will come as no great surprise to regular visitors to the blog to find yet more photos of the Gilf Kebir haunting these pages, but the Wadi Abd el Malek is of particular interest for a number of reasons. Wadi Abd el Malek is a long wadi which penetrates...
- Egyptian Rock Art
http://travel.independent.co.uk/africa/northern/story.jsp?story=641863 In an article entitled "In the footsteps of Count Laszlo" a trip into the Western (Libyan) Desert is described by writer and poet Robert Twigger. The destination is the Gilf Kebir,...
- The Gay "english Patient"
Laszlo Almasy was an explorer known by the Bedouin as "Father of the sand" who explored two million square kilometers of the Saharan desert mapping and making a number of discoveries including stone age painted dugouts. Hollywood loosely based the movie...