06/04/2026
Desert Riders :: The great unknown—off-piste in the Sahara 🏜️
The three of us reigned in our 650s, cut the engines, and stared ahead. Around us the horizon was a flat 360-degree sweep—sky above, the sands of the Ténéré desert below. But what was that a few miles ahead? An army patrol or smugglers, neither of which we wanted to meet, or just the harmless silhouette of the Lost Tree for which we’d set course that morning? I zoomed in with the camcorder but was none the wiser. If anyone was there they’d have spotted us by now.
It was January 2003. A couple of weeks earlier I’d crossed from Tunisia into Algeria with two friends, Andy and Jon, and together we rode south through the oil fields of the Grand Erg Oriental—a sand sea the size of Ireland. A day or two in, we pulled in behind a big dune, fitted our Michelin knobblies, and buried the trail tyres for the ride home.
| Spring 2017 📔 | by Chris Scott ✍️ |