As many will know, I have long had a fascination with the original Shepheard’s Hotel in Cairo. I returned from Egypt recently and have been able to string together some more findings about the place, burned down in 1952 but living still in the stories and legends of the Desert War. It is perforce limited… Read More Shepheard’s Hotel – more details

Five years ago when I lived in Cairo I was part of a group of friends jokingly called the Sand Rovers. We all had Defenders, we all travelled into the Sahara most weekends and we otherwise all met up at a small workshop we rented to kick tyres, drink beer and talk nonsense. Our Land… Read More Dusty in Egypt – Dec ’21

So sorry all – I’ve been very remiss again about keeping up to date here In the summer I was able to navigate the reefs and currents of idiotic bureaucracy during COVID and get to Malta, to meet up with some Land Rover-owning friends there and do some exploring. The rugged Fortress Island of Malta… Read More Malta!

As the world slowly rallies to deal with the idiocy of Coronavirus, it has become possible to travel once again. My first trip for several pandemic months happened in April, with a return to the beautiful land of Zimbabwe. As readers may know, I have a Series One Land Rover in Zimbabwe, a 1956 107″… Read More A return to Zimbabwe

Shepheard’s Hotel was the “place to be” in pre-war and wartime Cairo. Definitely a place for the well-heeled and the influential, haunt of Lawrence, Churchill and Kitchener, it was also a place where the senior ranks of the LRDG and SAS went to stay – and to drink. Cognoscenti today may be aware that the… Read More Shepheard’s Hotel and cocktails

For almost half a millennium the alcoholic spirit Rum – specifically dark “navy” rum – has been associated across the English-speaking world with war and adventure. Since the English conquest of Jamaica in 1655, rum was part of daily rations issued to the British Royal Navy – that is, until “Black Tot Day” in 1970… Read More Rum Jars and the Long Range Desert Group

Sorry. That was terrible. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year – or as good a Festive Season (of whatever variety) as we can manage at the moment. Many apologies for being a terrible correspondent – the stats for this Webpage show that many kind folk are still reading it and putting up… Read More Why couldn’t Mary and Joseph work remotely? There was no Zoom at the Inn….

At the end of June I flew home to Yorkshire in northern England with no real picture of how life would be. COVID of course is embarrassingly prevalent in the UK and the government has successfully bungled and mismanaged the social circumstances for the British people so nobody is really sure how to approach the… Read More Summer in the UK with COVID chaos

A strange time for the world – “unprecedented” gets used a lot at the mo – and its true. At least two of my friends have this COVID 19 wretch, one in China and one in the UK, and the ructions it causes globally are evident – less so are the ones it will continue… Read More Strange time for all…

My friend Mark Woodward is setting up Classic Safaris, a self drive safari company which uses Series 1, 2 and 3 Land Rovers to explore the northern deserts of the UAE. I’ve become informally involved as a safety car / desert mapper / beer tester and this last couple of weeks he’s been setting things… Read More “Classic Safaris” in Umm Al Qawain