In 2008, aged 70, Dr Newton Jibunoh embarked on his third across the Sahara. Unlike his previous two solo expedition, this time he travelled with a group of scientists and environmentalists — a means of passing on the torch to the younger generation, a process he enthusiastically continues to this day.

During his first solo expedition, Jibunoh was no stranger to near-death situations. He remembers negotiating for his life with bandits and having his possessions stolen; he recalls the intense loneliness of the epic journey and struggling through the desert without access to clean water.

Yet despite all the difficulties, Jibunoh says the beauty of the desert made it all worthwhile. But apart from discovering the majesty of the Sahara, Jibunoh also witnessed how drought, deforestation and human intervention were turning fertile land into desert and condemning people to acute poverty. In 1999, after his second solo expedition across the Sahara, he realised he had to do something to help the people affected by desertification.

This realisation led to the desert warriors program that saw a group of young environmental enthusiasts on a mission to combat the encroaching desert and raise appropriate awareness on its dangers

Today, we will be taking a trip down memory’s lane to give you a pictorial description of our desert experience ten years ago:

The story of how Dr Newton Jibunoh and his band of desert warriors attempted to conquer the Sahara has been told a number of times by both international media like CNN and domestic media across the globe but this is a story that is far from finished.

Dr Jibunoh’s latest autobiography details the journey and provides a potent narration of many near-death experience. It can be found here.