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Riding The Desert Trail (U)
Bettina Selby decided to travel the 4500 mile length of the Nile valley by herself, from the Mediterranean Sea to the great lakes of Central Africa. She designed a special, bright-red "all terrain" bicycle, which took her from the pyramids, the great temples of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings to the Nubian Desert, from Cairo and the hospitality of remote Nile-side villages, to the starving refugee camps of Southern Sudan and from the world of international aid to the terrifying child-soldiers of Uganda. This book describes her impressions of Egypt and her experiences of travelling alone.
516 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Bettina Selby
37 books4 followersAt the age of 47 I found myself free of commitments. I decided the time had at last come to do what I had long wanted, namely, to see something of the wilder regions of the world. I had already discovered the eminent suitability of a bicycle for travel and exploration, and so, with little more ado, I set out to see something of the Himalayas.
My first objective was Pakistan. I planned to ride from Karachi to Kathmandhu; going first along the line of the Indus River, and then weaving my way in and out of the Himalayan Valleys of India and Nepal. Five months and five thousand miles later I achieved my goal. Back home I set to work on the account of this journey. I called it RIDING THE MOUNTAINS DOWN, after a poem by e.e.cummings.
With the book published and selling well,with various foreign translations, I was commissioned to write another book.
This was a very different undertaking. I decided to make a journey from London to Jerusalem following the routes of the Medieval Crusaders and early Christian pilgrims. As physically challenging as the Himalayan journey, it was also one of the most enjoyable long distance rides I ever made, and not just for the many different countries and cultures I passed through, but particularly for the numerous and amazing sites of antiquity that I had long wanted to explore. RIDING TO JERUSALEM is the account.
My third long journey was a far more dangerous enterprise. I followed the course of the Nile from its Delta on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, through the length of Egypt and Sudan to the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda. It was a journey that presented great contrasts - the most stunning African landscapes and wonderful and diverse peoples on the one hand, and on the other the terrible problems of drought, poverty, desertification and the plight of refugees. And always there was the problem of my own survival; of staying alive in the deserts; of finding food and clean water; and of steering a way through the skirmishes of the Sudanese civil war and the aftermath of the Ugandan massacres. The account of this journey, published as 'RIDING THE DESERT TRAIL', is available in German as 'AH AGALA'
A second African journey centred on yet another of that continent's great rivers. This time I followed the strange course of the Niger, which bites deep into the Sahara Desert before turning back on itself, as Mungo Park first discovered,to flow through some of the poorest countries in West Africa. Through the remote desert lands of the Sahel, home to the last of Africa’s nomadic tribes, through Niger and Mali, I struggled with the sand and the climate to get to Timbuktu. Again beauty and hardship were the two poles of the experience. The terrible beauty of an inimical desert terrain permeated by the ghosts of the past, of black empires steeped in gold and the slave trade.`FRAIL DREAM OF TIMBUKTU' is also available in a German translation as `TIMBUKTU'
I have also written two books about my own country. RIDING NORTH ONE SUMMER was intended as a celebration of the English landscape seen through the web of its history. It was as good a summer bicycle jaunt as I ever took - three months of cycle/camping through the byways of England, discovering a green and pleasant land that still existed there, away from the motorways. Like all journeys, it produced its own surprises.
My other `home book’, 'THE FRAGILE ISLANDS', is about the Outer Hebrides - a string of small remote islands off the North West coast of Scotland. I find them as exotic as the remotest places I’ve travelled in, and even after spending a very wet summer there in a very small tent, my love for these Western Isles remains undimmed.
More recently I travelled in Eastern Turkey, going by way of the little explored and horrendously mountainous Black Sea Coast, before heading up into the even more mountainous lands of Kurdistan and Armenia, and on through the vast plains to Mount Ararat with its legends of Noah and t
My first objective was Pakistan. I planned to ride from Karachi to Kathmandhu; going first along the line of the Indus River, and then weaving my way in and out of the Himalayan Valleys of India and Nepal. Five months and five thousand miles later I achieved my goal. Back home I set to work on the account of this journey. I called it RIDING THE MOUNTAINS DOWN, after a poem by e.e.cummings.
With the book published and selling well,with various foreign translations, I was commissioned to write another book.
This was a very different undertaking. I decided to make a journey from London to Jerusalem following the routes of the Medieval Crusaders and early Christian pilgrims. As physically challenging as the Himalayan journey, it was also one of the most enjoyable long distance rides I ever made, and not just for the many different countries and cultures I passed through, but particularly for the numerous and amazing sites of antiquity that I had long wanted to explore. RIDING TO JERUSALEM is the account.
My third long journey was a far more dangerous enterprise. I followed the course of the Nile from its Delta on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, through the length of Egypt and Sudan to the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda. It was a journey that presented great contrasts - the most stunning African landscapes and wonderful and diverse peoples on the one hand, and on the other the terrible problems of drought, poverty, desertification and the plight of refugees. And always there was the problem of my own survival; of staying alive in the deserts; of finding food and clean water; and of steering a way through the skirmishes of the Sudanese civil war and the aftermath of the Ugandan massacres. The account of this journey, published as 'RIDING THE DESERT TRAIL', is available in German as 'AH AGALA'
A second African journey centred on yet another of that continent's great rivers. This time I followed the strange course of the Niger, which bites deep into the Sahara Desert before turning back on itself, as Mungo Park first discovered,to flow through some of the poorest countries in West Africa. Through the remote desert lands of the Sahel, home to the last of Africa’s nomadic tribes, through Niger and Mali, I struggled with the sand and the climate to get to Timbuktu. Again beauty and hardship were the two poles of the experience. The terrible beauty of an inimical desert terrain permeated by the ghosts of the past, of black empires steeped in gold and the slave trade.`FRAIL DREAM OF TIMBUKTU' is also available in a German translation as `TIMBUKTU'
I have also written two books about my own country. RIDING NORTH ONE SUMMER was intended as a celebration of the English landscape seen through the web of its history. It was as good a summer bicycle jaunt as I ever took - three months of cycle/camping through the byways of England, discovering a green and pleasant land that still existed there, away from the motorways. Like all journeys, it produced its own surprises.
My other `home book’, 'THE FRAGILE ISLANDS', is about the Outer Hebrides - a string of small remote islands off the North West coast of Scotland. I find them as exotic as the remotest places I’ve travelled in, and even after spending a very wet summer there in a very small tent, my love for these Western Isles remains undimmed.
More recently I travelled in Eastern Turkey, going by way of the little explored and horrendously mountainous Black Sea Coast, before heading up into the even more mountainous lands of Kurdistan and Armenia, and on through the vast plains to Mount Ararat with its legends of Noah and t
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 6, 2019
This is the third of Bettina Selby's travel books I have read - all cycle based trips. This one takes her from the mouth of the Nile to its source (well, it doesn't split hairs over the actual source - Lake Victoria is her final destination), taking in of course, Egypt, Sudan and Uganda. Published in 1987, the journey was just before - perhaps '86.
It was an ambitious and very brave journey - Egypt is well known for its ability to separate travellers from their money, but it is in Sudan and Uganda where things were particularly risky.
In this book, perhaps more than I remember in the other books, Shelby goes a long way into this history and culture of the places she visits. She draws inspiration from, and parallels the journey of Amelia Edwards in 1887, although Edwards never ventured forth on a bicycle of course! Selby however had a cycle purpose built, and painted bright red, which made it quite a point of interest for the locals whose own cycles, where available, were old, in poor repair, and not red.
So Selby sets off, putting in long hours in the saddle to cover a lot of ground, but not so stubborn as to refuse assistance where necessary - especially in the more dangerous desert routes, or where civil war is close. As is often the case with this type of travel (and travel book), the story is made by those people the author encounters on the way - and being on a cycle bring her into much closer contact with local poeple. Almost exclusively they are welcoming and feel obliged to feed and shelter the visitor to their land, and of course add a level of detail to the journey that is not usually found in other modes of travel where the traveller engages less.
Readable, and fairly fast moving, this book desn't suffer from the drudgery of reading about the pedalling, or cataloguing every meal.
4 stars
It was an ambitious and very brave journey - Egypt is well known for its ability to separate travellers from their money, but it is in Sudan and Uganda where things were particularly risky.
In this book, perhaps more than I remember in the other books, Shelby goes a long way into this history and culture of the places she visits. She draws inspiration from, and parallels the journey of Amelia Edwards in 1887, although Edwards never ventured forth on a bicycle of course! Selby however had a cycle purpose built, and painted bright red, which made it quite a point of interest for the locals whose own cycles, where available, were old, in poor repair, and not red.
So Selby sets off, putting in long hours in the saddle to cover a lot of ground, but not so stubborn as to refuse assistance where necessary - especially in the more dangerous desert routes, or where civil war is close. As is often the case with this type of travel (and travel book), the story is made by those people the author encounters on the way - and being on a cycle bring her into much closer contact with local poeple. Almost exclusively they are welcoming and feel obliged to feed and shelter the visitor to their land, and of course add a level of detail to the journey that is not usually found in other modes of travel where the traveller engages less.
Readable, and fairly fast moving, this book desn't suffer from the drudgery of reading about the pedalling, or cataloguing every meal.
4 stars
October 18, 2007
Good for her description of Sudan, where things were to become much worse between her journey and now, and Uganda, where the sheer brutality of life there comes through loud and clear in the last couple of chapters.
August 3, 2012
An interesting book - a journey by bicycle, believe it or not - to the source of the Nile, in the 1980s. I found it interesting in that it provided a different perspective to reported "News" eg. about Sudan, at that time. A very brave woman, and a fascinating book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews