Book review: Lost Oasis - In Search of Paradise

Guardian Unlimited (review by Toby Lichtig)

Robert Twigger's latest travel odyssey is a search for a fabled oasis in the Egyptian Sahara. As in Voyageur, which mirrored the 18th-century Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie on his journey across North America, Twigger is following in famous footsteps: the search for 'Zerzura', he tells us, 'drove the exploration of the eastern Sahara'. Harding King, Ralph Bagnold and Count Almasy (of English Patient fame) all pursued it, though none found it. Twigger realises that it probably doesn't exist, but Zerzura is just a pretext. His real fascination is with the desert itself. He and his family have abandoned suburban Oxfordshire for Cairo; now, he simply seeks 'vastness in the face of human confusion and brain fatigue'.

Unusually for a travel book, not a huge amount happens in Lost Oasis. Twigger goes on a few expeditions into the Sahara. He builds a special trolley for his baggage. He has trouble getting hold of maps and becomes enmeshed in the Egyptian bribery system. He meets a host of colourful characters, including megalomaniac tour guides and Dutch explorer Arita Baaijens.

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