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                           NEWS & VIEWS
 

2008 Desert Dinner   The 2008 dinner will be held at the Rag (The Army & Navy Club) in Pall Mall in London, John Trewby being our host, on  31 October 2008. 

Morocco
The British in Morocco, a 500 year Obsession: Filibusters, Spies, Travellers and Eccentric Exiles by Barnaby Rogerson, publisher, guide and author of The Cadogan Guide to Morocco (5th edition), A History of North Africa and A Biography of the Prophet Mohammed.

DATE: April 30 2008
VENUE: Royal Geographical Society, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR
TIME: 7.00pm lecture, followed by drinks

If you would like to attend, please telephone Nicole Biddle on 020 7384 2332 or emailing nicole@cazloyd.com, saying that you are a member of the club.


Click on photo to enlarge

Two views of the dinner in 2007.  David Young, our host at the Travellers Club is on the left in the nearer picture, with Chairman, Richard Snailham standing on the right looking down on Nigel Winser (just in view).

Reading lists for some deserts
New navigation button in left hand panel.

David & Lillis Lyon return from Niger
Travelling with Akly and Cella Joulia all went as planned for their visit to Niger.  They included a visit to Adrar Madet where they found an old French airstrip.  They found many artefacts, including a complete pot and many arrow heads etc.  They also came a cross part of a human skeleton.

They missed an armed raid on Iferouane by a few hours when bandits in two armed vehicles arrived, attacked the military, killing a few, and taking three hostages.  David made an assessment of the situation, reckoning that the bandits would head west, and so kept to their itinerary of going east.

A full report with photographs will be on this site in due course.

Report of David's 2004 trip click here.

Members' new books
Gerald Wickens has just produced The Baobabs, a book on the trees, some of which will grow not too far from arid regions.

Mauritania
Stephen Day, past British Ambassador to Qatar and then Tunisia,  was invited to speak with Dr Simon Woods on 1 February 2007 about their 1960 Oxford and Cambridge Universities Expedition to Mali and Mauritania.  It is reported on www.picproductions.co.uk/mauritania.  Jazera Television has invited the whole expedition to return to Mauritania in the autumn.
Click on photo to enlarge
Stephen Day striding out in Mauritania in earlier days.



Registered name now www.desertdiningclub.org.uk.  Adam Gibson, a long standing member, has generously created and donated the above name to the web site.  He has also provided an email address to be used for contacting the Web Master: info@desertdiningclub.org.uk.

Know more about camels.  They can swim!  John Hare was the first to offer material for the web site.  Those who missed
hearing his account of an exciting camel journey in Kenya, can read about it here.  He also provides a newsletter from the Wild Camel Protection Foundation of which he is Founding Chairman.    

Click on photo to enlarge

Book list - other deserts
Does any member have interesting reading lists of particular deserts to contribute? 

Google not good for Desert Dining Club!
Professor Bob Schroter said "I have just run a Google on our name and found we are a group of restaurants in the USA - perhaps we should get them to sponsor a trip by us all!!"

Les Enfants de l'Air
Christine Mills was unable to attend the Desert Dinner at Chatham last November because she was in Agadez where she works with Les Enfants de l'Air.  Their web site is www.enfants-air.com.

Libyan Desert
There have been two lectures at the RGS: Libya Awakens by Chris Bradley on 20 November 2006; and, on 4 December, Exploration of the Western Desert by Motor Car by Professor Andrew Goudie who covered the period up to and including the Second World War.  On 5 December Tertia Barnett gave an illustrated lecture to the Society for Libyan Studies (www.britac.ac.uk/institutes/libya/)  on 8,000 Years of Rock Art in Libya.  Her work is described in Libyan Studies Vol 37:95-116, and her web site: www.libyarockart.com.

 Fish in the Ténéré
A discussion note with questions posed and comments received from Mike Saunders and Martin Williams  click here

List of dates of venues
The History page of the web site now has a link to a full list of venues for dinners in the Club's first 25 years.
Does anyone know the year of the joint event with the Rain Forest Club.  Please respond to info@desertdiningclub.org.uk