Fliegel Jezerniczky Expeditions

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This website is dedicated to the Libyan Desert (or Eastern Sahara), one
of the least explored and most strikingly beautiful places on this planet.
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Last updated: 11^th April, 2024. What's New?

The site contains three sections:

The Libyan Desert

Contains general background information on the Libyan Desert, including geography, a detailed account of and various original documents relating to its history and exploration, descriptions and photo galleries of the main rock art and archaeological sites (Wadi Sora, the real "Cave of Swimmers", Karkur Talh rock art sites, Ain Doua, Abu Ballas and others) and information on the desert's fauna and flora.

Expeditions

Provides news updates and itineraries for expeditions planned by Fliegel Jezerniczky Expeditions, as well as reports and many photos from past expeditions. Section also provides practical information for expedition participants.

Resources

Provides a selection of high resolution Landsat images of the Libyan Desert, as well as links to the few websites, and a comprehensive bibliography of various books books and articles related to exploration, history and rock art of the Libyan Desert, including a full listing of the various editions of Almásy's writings. There are some hard to find old books and maps available.

RECENT ADDITIONS

See also the NEWS section !

			2024 March - Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria A ten day private trip to the Central Tassili in search of some remote "lost" sites published decades ago, but not seen by anyone in recent memory.
			2023 June - Rock Art of Namibia Account of the fifteen day tour of the principal rock art sites and natural wonders of Namibia, immediately following our private trip.
			2023 May-June - Upper Brandberg & the Mikberg, Namibia In June we spent five weeks in Namibia, first doing a trek up the Karoab Gorge, then continuing the explorations at the Mikberg and on private farms, followed by the classic two week rock art tour. This is the account of the first part of our trip we did with Uwe.
			2022 October - Tassili n'Ajjer & Tadrart, Algeria After the long ten year wait we could return to the classic sites of the Tassili n'Ajjer plateau for a ten day trek, followed by another eight days to the southern part of the Algerian Tadrart.
			2022 June - Upper Brandberg & the Mikberg, Namibia A tour of several remote rock art sites recorded by Ernst Rudolf Scherz on private farms, a four day trek up to the the Amis, Numas and Dom gorges in the Upper Brandberg, plus a reconnaissance of the Mikberg area sites.
			2021 November - Ennedi, Chad After a very long two year absence from the Sahara due to Covid related travel restrictons, we coud finally return for a splendid tree week expedition to re-visit the extraordinary engravings of Niola Doa and a good measure of other rock art sites and the spectacular landscape along the South-western edge of the plateau.
			2021 June - Rock art of Namibia The first trip since the start of the pandemic, despite all the hurdles and international travel restrictons a very pleasant and successful trip, once in Namibia we hardly noticed the mayhem gripping the rest of the world. Following the rock art tour, with a small party we finally made the long overdue climb to the Raiders Gorge (upper Brandberg) to the amazing Raiders 1 site.
			The first book of Almásy now available in English With no traveling possible due to Covid restrictions, I have completed one of my many pending backlogs, the translation of Almásy's first book, "With motorcar to Sudan" to English. While it contains no dramatic discoveries, it is a well written and amusing travelogue describing his first experiences (and blunders) while driving in the sand and experiencing Africa for the first time. May be purchased as a PDF file, or as part of Almásy's Complete Works in English.
			40 years ago... It all started in October 1980, when at the age of sixteen I made a journey to Kharga and Dakhla oases with two AUC classmates. To commemorate the event I have re-scanned all the prints taken on the trip, added a slide show, and revised the trip account with more detail.
			2020 February - Ennedi, Chad After the planned Ouri Plain trip became impossible to organise, we invoked Plan B and made a thoroughly enjoyable round of the Ennedi, visiting Niola Doa and many other sites along the south western side of the plateau.
			2019 November - Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria With the chaos of the past year I had many other commitments to attend to, but finally I am starting to catch up, the account of our month long two-part 2019 autumn expediton to the Oued Djerat and the Tadjelahine Plateau of the Tassili n'Ajjer is now complete.
			2018 January - Ennedi, Chad Following up on our first exploratory voyage to the Ennedi plateau in North Eastern Chad, on this expedition we focused of the wealth of rock art sites in the Fada region. We conducted a successful search for the elusive cover scene of Bailloud's book, and re visited several other superb sites not seen since their original discovery decades ago.
			2017 March - Tadrart & Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria The Algerian Tadrart is one of the most beautiful desert landscapes on this Earth, not to mention the wealth of rock art sites. With the easing of travel restrictions in South Algeria we made a tour of the Tadrart, followed by another week of cherry picking some of the finest sites in the Central Tassili.
			2017 February - Ouri Plain, Eastern Tibesti, Chad Our second expedition to the amazing rock art sites of the Ouri Plain along the Eastern side of the Tibesti Mountains. This time we managed to reach further North, visiting all principal sites of the Enneri Borou and Enneri Borboré, making a major new discovery in the latter. The length and difficulty of both the onward and return journeys made this one of the most difficult Sahara expeditions we ever made.
			2016 November - Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria We made our very first Sahara voyage together 25 years ago. In November we returned to Djanet to spend three weeks in the Tassili n'Ajjer as a re-make of this first voyage, re-locating several superb remote sites in the central and Northern Tassili.
			2016 January - Ennedi, Chad A thoroughly enjoyable and very successful exploratory voyage to the Ennedi plateau in North Eastern Chad, visiting the extraordinary engravings of Niola Doa, also taking in a good measure of the rock art sites and spectacular landscape along the South Western edge of the plateau.
			June 2015 - Brandberg, Namibia This year we made a different kind of Brandberg trip, using camper cars to drive around the mountain and to gain access to the lower and middle accumulation of sites in a number of valleys. Aside some easy to access sites, we did manage to see some very remote and unique paintings in the lower altitudes of the mountain.
			January 2015 - Eastern Tibesti, Chad In January 2015 we succeeded in reaching the immensely remote Ouri Plain along the Eastern side of the Tibesti Mountains. The plain is dotted with hundreds of rock art sites, among them some of the finest paintings in the entire Sahara, all placed in a surreal world of sandstone towers half submerged in golden sand. Being able to visit the region and the shelters of Karnasahi, Fofoda and others surely counts as the ultimate Sahara experience. Another trip is planned for the winter of 2017, conditions permitting.
			The Diary & Photos of G.J. Mostert, SAAF 15 Sqn. In 1942 the South African Air Force 15th Squadron was deployed to Egypt. A detached flight of three Blenheims were ordered to Kufra to provide air cover for the Oasis. One of the support personnel was mechanic Gerald James Mostert, whose Photo Album and Diary gives a fascinating insight into the unglorified everydays of the Desert War, untold by the official accounts.
			July 2014 - Upper Brandberg, Namibia In July we were back to the Brandberg to make a diagonal trek totaling 60 kilometres accross the upper plateau, startng in Circus Gorge, traversing to the Orabes Plateau via much of upper Numas and Hungorob, and descending via the Sesaub Gorge (Basswaldrinne), seeing many of the remotest Upper Brandberg paintings never visited on previous trips.
			2014 January - Tibesti Mountains, Chad This expedition was 20 years in the making, ever since I have first set my eyes on photos of the mythical Tibesti Mountains deep in the centre of the Sahara. By the time we gained enough experience, the Tibesti rebellion was in full swing, and till recently the area was inaccessible to even the most intrepid travelers. Incredibly the tide has turned, presently the Tibesti is an island of calm in the rather turbulent surrounding desert. We had an amazing three weeks visiting all the important areas of this extremely remote area.
			Rudolph Kuper Wadi Sura - The Cave of Beasts A rock art site in the Gilf Kebir (SW Egypt) AFRICA PRAEHISTORICA 26, Köln 2013 513 pp, 445 full colour pages, numerous coloured figures, tables and maps The long awaited publication on the magnificent Cave of Beasts at Wadi Sora, to be published in August 2013, with a number of articles describing the context and archaeological setting of the site, followed by a complete photographic documentation of the shelter in a 1:2 ratio, in the quality to be expected from the publications of the HBI.The book is now available for ORDER.
			Operation Salam - László Almásy's most daring Mission in the Desert War Kuno Gross, Michael Rolke & András Zboray This book is the result of a multi-year collaborative research effort by the authors, following the trail of László Almásy, partially in the musty gloom of remote document archives, but also in a very real sense, in the scorching sands of the Libyan Desert. Our objective was to give a complete and balanced account of the activities of Almásy in North Africa during the Second World War, culminating in the daring Operation Salam which succeeded in delivering two German spies to Egypt across the vast Libyan Desert, practically under the nose of the enemy. A high quality hardback publication on 412 pages, 21x27.4cm (Quarto), with over 500 photos, maps and drawings, half of them historical photographs of the original operation. NOW SHIPPING!
			2011 October - Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria We have re-visited the Tassili 20 years after our first journey, it still is "the most beautiful desert of all". During an eight day trek on the plateau we visited (and photographed) all of the principal sites of the Tamrit-Sefar-Jabbaren areas.
			Paul Borchardt, the Abwehr and the Harding King letters My copy of Harding King's "Mysteries of the Libyan Desert" revealed a very different mystery, followed up in the National Archives. A fascinating story of intrigue and espionage set against the backdrop of the Libyan Desert, with a cast of the great early explorers.
			2011 June - Upper Brandberg, Namibia We have returned to the Brandberg to continue where we left off last year, learning from our experiences. With more effective helicopter support, we managed to see most of the principal sites of the Western part of the Upper Brandberg.
			2010 November - Western Uweinat from Libya We returned to Libya after a long absence to explore the remaining "white spots" at western Jebel Uweinat. We had an unexpectedly hassle free and absolutely superb trip, making long treks on the granite part of the mountain resulting in a number of important new rock art finds.
			2010 October trip account Something quite different for a change, this expedition focused on the WWII history of the Libyan Desert, retracing the Egyptian part of Almásy's Operation Salam route and visiting the numerous SDF and LRDG wrecks still littering the desert.
			2010 June - Upper Brandberg, Namibia The account of our first expedition to the rock art sites of the Upper Brandberg mountain, Namibia. We had a very tough, but amazingly beautiful ten days on the top of the Brandberg, seeing many of the principal sites, a trip we plan to repeat on a regular basis.
			Rock Art of the Libyan Desert Second Expanded Edition now available! The Second Edition of the illustrated catalogue of all known rock art sites in the Libyan Desert had been published in October 2009, now available for purchase. Nearly 300 new sites and over 4000 new photographs were added. Note: a special discount applies to those who purchased the First Edition.
			2009 November trip account We returned to Uweinat after a year and a half's absence. Our objectives were to ascend the summit, and explore some remaining blank spots in the upper areas of the mountain, all of which were met with spectacular results.
			8^th August, 2009 - 10^th Anniversary of the website launch It was ten years ago that the precursor to this website made its modest debut. Since then we have come a long way, the event is celebrated with several updates, a little facelift, and the announcement of new expeditions.
			I have finally managed to complete the project of translating all of Almásy's writings relevant to the Libyan Desert into English, including a corrected and annoted transcript of the Operation Salaam diary. PDF or CD versions may be ordered on-line.
			A pharaonic inscription at Uweinat! In late 2008 Mark Borda and Mahmoud Marei have discovered a pharaonic inscription at Jebel Uweinat, a most amazing find that will require a complete re-thinking of our understanding of the deep desert travel capabilities of the Ancient Egyptians.
			The lost bag of signalman Alec Ross In August 2007, a bag of a WWII british soldier was found near Wadi Sora, with all personal belongings. Here is the fascinating story, with photos of the finds.
			2007 October trip account An account of our October expedition, organised primarily to explore unsurveyed parts of Jebel Uweinat. We did make some splendid rock art finds, however the highlight was to observe the aftermath of yet another summer rain, which left pools large enough to swim in all over the mountain.
			2007 March trip account with video footage An account of our March expedition to visit the rock art sites of Jebel Uweinat and the Gilf Kebir, illustrated for the first time with digital video footage.
			It rained at Uweinat !!! The miracle we've been waiting for seven years repeated itself! On our last visit in October, Karkur Talh and other valleys were filled with lush green vegetation, and millions of yellow flowers. The flora and fauna pages have been extensively updated with the noted new species.
			New rock art finds in the Wadi Wahesh Instead of the cancelled Sudan trip, we decided to make a two week expedition, principally to Jebel Uweinat, to continue exploration of the unknown parts. In the upper reaches of the Wadi Wahesh (south Uweinat) we found a very rich group of paintings, some of them in a hitherto unknown style.
			2004 October trip account Added the account of our October trip to Jebel Uweinat and the Gilf Kebir. The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly the show put on by a horned viper, who proceeded to have it's dinner right in front of our cameras.
			Unpublished historic photographs by F.G.B. Arkwright Bimbashi (capt.) Arkwright was Commanding Officer of the No.1. Motor Machine Gun Battery of the SDF, occupying Bir Murr at Uweinat in 1934. His sons, Anthony and Philip discovered these photos in a family album, and have very kindly permitted them to be shared with all of us. Some photos show Almásy, as well as the ascent of Uweinat.
			Exploration of Arkenu & Western Uweinat Account of our 2003 October trip to Libya. Exploration and new rock art discoveries at Arkenu, Karkur Idriss and Karkur Ibrahim. Visit to Jebel Sherif and South Uweinat thwarted by Libyan officialdom.
			Mystery of the "White Blob" solved Traverse of the Great Sand Sea, exploration and new rock art discoveries near Wadi Sora and Karkur Talh. All in the latest trip account.
			Spectacular rock art sites discovered A number of truly spectacular paintings and dozens of other new sites were found during our expedition to Uweinat and the Gilf Kebir in October, 2002.
			The SDF Kufra Convoys The little known history of the Sudan Defence Force truck convoys supplying Kufra from Wadi Halfa in 1941-42. Contains an account intended for Bagnold's never published LRDG history.
			Sister site on the Tassili N'Ajjer Have created a sister site with many photos and description of rock art sites in the Tassili N'Ajjer, southern Algeria, based on our 1991 and 1993 trips
			Unpublished Bagnold Photographs Stephen Bagnold, son of Ralph Alger Bagnold, has most graciously provided scans of unpublished photos of the early expeditions.

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