In October, 1972, Moorhouse set out to cross the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Nile, a west-to-east journey of 3,600 miles that no single traveler had ever completed. By taking on the Sahara, he was placing himself in a situation that symbolized the things he dreaded most. His deepest fears, common to most of us, were those of annihilation, of being surrounded by what is hostile and alien, of being lost. The awful immensity of the desert wilderness represented them all.

He started out from Mauritania in temperatures registering around 131 degrees. He had prepared himself with proper clothing, with lessons in Arabic, camel-riding and desert navigation, but from the outset the desert took its toll. Moorhouse fell ill; his sextant was useless; he was captured by bellicose soldiers; three of his six camels died; he himself almost died of thirst after missing a well in a sandstorm. Obliged to travel with a succession of native companions, he discovered both unconscionable rogues and two stalwart allies. In March, weakened by sickness and exhaustion, he ended his trek at Tamanrasset, Algeria.

Moorhouse had nevertheless achieved an enormous personal victory. He had traveled 2,000 miles, triumphing over some of the most merciless country on earth. His battle with fear and loneliness, his conquest of the spiritual as well as the physical hazards of the desert, stand as a splendid example to Western man that it is possible to come to terms with our fears and find capacities far beyond what we might have imagined.

Text from the book "The Fearful Void" by Geoffrey Moorhouse, Copyright © Geoffrey Moorhouse. - Reprinted with special permission from Aitken & Stone - All Rights Reserved. - Photography © OneWorld Magazine - All Rights Reserved.