Beyond the Last Oasis

In February 1983 Ted Edwards completed a nineteen-day trek of 350 miles across the waterless empty quarter of the South-Western Sahara: the longest self-sufficient solo camel journey in history.This is his story and it recounts not only the trek from Araouane to Oualata, but also the hazards of its preparation: an inflexible bureaucracy, a mugging in Morocco, a shipwreck, and, inevitably, his own inexperience.The Walk itself took on an epic aspect from the start. Stung by a scorpion, bones broken in a fall from a camel, waterless in over 120°F, exhausted by his efforts to avoid sand dunes over a thousand feet high, and given up for dead by the BBC team awaiting his arrival, Ted Edwards finally struggled into Oualata,four stone lighter than where he set off from Araouane.His story, characterized by his determination and sense of humour, graphically recreates the moment-to-moment experiences of his perilous, record-breaking journey.