Desert Drive: A zine about crossing the Sahara

Available free from Smashwords.

This is an informative mixture of brief and informal history & culture, but mostly the authors involvement in (a portion of) the ‘banger rally'. This part from Spain through Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, and Gambia. It is also a look into the authors psyche, outlook and thoughts on various topics relevant (and semi-relevant) to the events of the book.

With a friend and another guy (who was more an annoying accomplice than a friend) in a Volvo, they joined ten other cars in what is essentially a race, but more an endurance event across North and West Africa.

It is a pretty honest piece of writing, charting the progress, the complications, the people they meet, the relationships and interactions within the car and the wider group, and the physical and mental difficulties of the trip. Car breakdowns, borders, hygiene, road conditions & hotels all make the story as would be expected in such a travelogue.

Obviously the author has written before, and this is a pretty well written self-published book, when compared to some of the other offerings from Smashwords (some of which are painfully amateurish), and I enjoyed reading this in short bursts. Recommended if you are into the reality and grit of some fairly hardcore travel in North and West Africa, without the polish often applied to travel - they didn't hang about admiring tourist sites and sights, they were travelling to programme on a rally with a time goal.

For me 4 stars - bearing in mind the non-professional nature of the book.