Lost Oasis: In Search Of Paradise (The Hungry Student)

Not what I was expecting and skipped a few pages a bit boring

Its a good and interesting read but not , I felt, up to his usual high standard. His website is well worth a visit.

inspired by this book I went into the sahara again to the oasis of Kharga and dakla.His rendering of life as a foreigner in Egypt is spot on.

Great book about what its like to live in Cairo, Maadi in particular, and do desert travels. If you live, or are thinking of living, in Cairo this is an especially interesting book. Set before the current unrest began.

Author and adventurer Robert Twigger moves to live in Cairo and to explore the desert of Egypt hoping to discover the location of a legendary oasis. Through his adventures, Twigger meets a series of colourful characters engaged in similar quests and is seduced by the endless opportunity for adventure offered by the desert.Twigger's engaging account is as strong on the challenges of Egyptian bureaucracy and there are hilarious accounts of his attempts to secure a flat and to move his family and his possessions into his residence. He pursuses his explorations tenaciously, bribing mysterious parking attendants to secure maps and participating in a variety of drives through the desert oases in which he learns the perils of desert driving.His relaxed writing style allows him to explain the experiences of previous explorers in a manner that never becomes tedious and or feels like a lecture and he is always awake to the absurdities of his own situation.This enjoyable account comes to the end as Twigger finishes his first year in Cairo leaving us to wonder if he has continued his adventures.

If I were a man, I wouldn't mind to be someone like Robert Twigger. You know the type? You would never be short of ideas, see possibilities where other people see problems and you would embark on the most crazy and bizar adventures, enjoy every minute of it and on top of that write a great book about your experiences.Twigger takes on challenges most people only dare dream about, or maybe not even that. It takes a sparkling mind to come up with ideas like Twigger has: search for the longest snake on earth, build a berch canoe in the middle of a forest and peddle for months on end along the river, go on an expedition to find a new species and give it your family name.In Lost Oasis his wanderlust takes Twigger to the Western Desert of Egypt, in the footsteps of famous explorers like the German Gerhard Rohlfs and the Hungarian count Almasy. Never mind if you've read a zillion books about the desert, this one is different. It's a 'Twigger'.

I honestly enjoyed reading Lost Oasis. It comes across as a small traveller's notebook, yet it's stuffed full of colourful incident and observation. This does not take you away from the readiness and reality of each part of Twigger's journey and various "Starts"!His journey starts with a move of family and life from England to Cairo and the boundless promise of the Desert. Here begins a light-hearted search for a fabulous and factual "Lost Oasis" within the vast Sahara.I come away from reading this book a little more interested in Egypt but also really excited at the potential for my next travels. A big recommendation for Lost Oasis and the stories I discovered in this excellent travel book.