First people to walk the Great Sand Sea
It is with great pleasure that we announce the successful completion of the 2009-2010 expedition which followed in the camel tracks and footsteps of the 1873 Rohlfs expedition. Over a year in preparation and 27 days in the desert we managed the exact route that Rohlfs followed but did not lose any camels (he lost ten) though we came close on one occasion. The route took us through 700km of the most turbulently dune filled areas in the world. We found hidden valleys never before visited (there were no tracks in some places for days), stone tools, flint knapping stations, a cache of pots in good condition and some of the most spectacular desert scenery we have ever seen. The final team were: Richard Mohun, Robert Twigger, Claudia Grim, Piers Dunn, Patrick McHugh, Dr John Crockett, Ali Zeydan, Hassan Massut, Salah and Abdullah Hamed.Unlike Rohlfs, who rode a horse and camel some of the way, Twigger, Mohun and Crockett eschewed camel travel to walk the entire distance by foot, thus becoming the first people ever to traverse the Great Sand Sea this way.