“I stumbled across your site, drawn by a link entitled Feed The Rat.  An obscure phrase that brought back flooding memories of drinking after hours with another local called Mo Anthoine, my climbing mentor, over 20 years ago in Llanberis in the UK. 

"Feed the rat youth.  If you don't, it will slowly gnaw away at you.  You have to feed the rat".

He was always on about his rats was Mo and he showed us kids how to care for ours.

Over 20 years later, the rat’s still there, as fat and belligerent as ever, still looking for the passion. 

I don't climb hard any more, I followed those dreams into the mountains for years and watched the some truly splendid dawns from the roof of the world but it was the deserts that got truly under my skin. 

The solitude, the silence, the smell of dust under a burning African sky.  I go out into the Sahara and the rat feels content for a time.

But I have to return to the desert, I always have to go back.  I have to feed the rat.

To me, Mo summed up this need, this drive this passion for life that some of us have - if you don't feed the rat - it'll slowly gnaw away at you. 

I think my former mentor would have liked this website. 

I think it would have made him smile.  A fitting tribute.

Hugh”. www.saharanexploration.co.uk

PS. If these following pages are hard to read, cut and paste them and then magnify them, we're not able to do the “expando” image thing from the site …. too technical.