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Libya Desert and Culture: "
Ian Ripper of Guerba World Travel shares his experience of a 15-day tour in Libya, including the Akukus mountains, Tripoli and famous Roman sites.

Written by Guerba World Travel

I recently returned from our new Libya Desert & Culture tour, and have just been reminded why I got into this business in the first place!

I love the desert, and the Libyan desert is the best I’ve seen. I went along to oversee the first departure and to be there in case anything went wrong, but was delighted to be in the hands of our superb crew and to be able to sit back and enjoy a real holiday. The Akukus mountains topped the bill for me. A superb area of ‘Monument Valley’ type rock formations with classic sculpted dunes in between.

Al Hadi, our Tuareg guide, was born and raised here and is a real expert on the people of the area, past and present. He also had an almost uncanny ability to find stone axe arrow heads and other 6,000 to 10,000 year old artefacts (we searched him once to make sure he wasn’t planting these things!). A later visit to the museum revealed he was in fact a large contributor to their collection so clearly had an eye for rocks. Al Hadi spends his summer months working for the ministry of education, and is a font of knowledge on all things desert.

We travelled in a convoy of 4wd Toyota Land cruisers, piloted by Tuareg drivers who all had a superb knowledge of the desert and really made the journey come alive. We took a small diversion to the planned itinerary to head deep into the Eastern desert reaching a spot ideal for viewing the full solar eclipse along the line of totality. We ended up in a totally flat plain and had an awesome experience with the sun almost directly overhead as the moon crossed its path.

The temperature dropped seventeen degrees Celsius and the light took on a silver hue as Venus appeared and the sun, apart from the corona, vanished. Being so fundamental to the landscape, it was very moving to ‘lose’ the sun for those four minutes, and even more of an experience than I had anticipated.

After that, and some more vast desert scenery, we arrived in the Ubari sand seas – an area of majestic dunes that transformed with the changing light. Set within this sand sea are a number of lakes. It’s an improbable combination to see lakes within the dunes, and a real treat to escape the heat with a relaxing swim. The water is very saline, so it was easy to bob on the cool surface waters and chill off. If you do put your feet down, it’s almost scalding hot, and apparently fresh although I didn’t manage to test that assertion.

Leptis Magna, the African headquarters of the Roman empire.

We then parted company with the desert crew and took a short flight back to Tripoli where we all enjoyed the comforts of a modern hotel before visiting the extensive Roman ruins of Leptis Magna and other Roman sites. These are some of the finest Roman sites anywhere, and impressive for their scale alone.

Before departing, we managed some time in Tripoli medina, which was a real pleasure,as we were able to shop without any hasslers. It was a first for me to be able to look at carpets, rugs and other delights without being hounded to submission by over-enthusiastic merchants.

The tour was fifteen days, mostly under canvas in the desert, with great meals all provided and our only contribution to camp chores was to pitch our own tents. Evenings around the camp fire were filled with stories of the desert and the odd sortie to spot a gerbil collecting the scraps from supper. We travelled three to a car and there were two baggage vehicles for water and food and the kitchen crew.

Ian Ripper is the Marketing Director for Guerba World Travel, an adventure travel company with over 25 years experience and trips worldwide, allowing you to see the world in close-up. For more details see www.guerba.co.uk The guest post was originally published on travelarticlelibrary.com

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