Most of the journeys of much moment we have already described, and the minor ones would be tedious to rehearse. One march through the Sahara is extremely like another.
-The Story of Africa and Its Explorers, Robert Brown, 1894
Robert Brown was right, and all the greats of Saharan travel- Ibn Battuta, Leo Africanus, Mansa Musa, KhairAllah Khair al-Sayyid- would agree that the much moments- arriving at a long anticipated sweet water well, a daybreak unlike any daybreak ever before seen- were far fewer than the minor- yet another fifteen hours in the saddle, yet another breakfast of the previous night’s cold millet pudding. But extremely like another? No, Shuwayya, Just a Bit, because at each step bringing us closer to Cairo, the city grew more fantastic in our imagination.