Collecting peach pits, London's Trafalgar Square, to plant in the Sahara.
Sahara Challenge
By Richard St. Barbe Baker
"My book, Sahara Challenge, describes the nine thousand miles we drove, sleeping under the stars. We had many narrow escapes from death and were constantly reminded of our possible fate by that of others - sometimes all that remained of a hopeful driver was a shin bone sticking out of an old shoe!"
Challenge details the First Sahara University Expedition, of 1952-53, that St. Barbe said "proved to be one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life."
On the eve of the expedition's departure, St. Barbe went on the radio and created the media event above. He is just barely visible in the photo, on the extreme left, back to the camera, directly in front of the young lady wearing a black hat and a bemused look on her face.
The purpose of the trip was to gather "detailed information, both with regard to the spread of the desert's advance and to the means of stopping this encroachment, and to the possibilities of its reclamation."
The terrain in the Hogar Mountains of the Central Sahara
A Map of the Expedition
Excerpt: Quicksand and the Lone Trees
