How different in the Sahara!- no shops, scanty food, less water…
-Angus Buchanan, Sahara, 1926, Dedicated “To Feri N’Gashi, Only a Camel, but Steel-True and Great of Heart”
Buchanan bought a year’s supply of tinned food in London’s West End, having a taxi wait outside the provisioner’s shop for an hour while he made his purchases, before heading off to the Sahara. That’s the same absurdity as when Dan Rather showed up on some Third World assignment wearing a safari suit tailored on Savile Row. Mustapha had his ‘Arāgi and Sirwāl made at a street-side sewing stall in El Obeid. Better it be done that way, cheaper and more camouflage.