Under the Desert Sands

On honeymoon, an archaeologist couple, Toby and Lucy, meet an emergency on Lake Nasser. A man, Hassan, was being attacked by a crocodile. Can they rescue him? Will he survive?

Leaving the lake for the Western Desert and its oases. They go to Kharga and have a wonderful party. A fantasia entertains them with whirling dervishes, Nubian dancers and pipes of hashish being handed around. Then back on to the White Desert, a “Wonder of the World”. They get stuck in the deep sand and freeze in the cold night; dug out, a surprise in the hole left by their rear wheel.

Is it what they hope? Is it part of a temple? Is it an archaeologist’s dream or just a lump of stone?

Lucy bewitches a colonel in the Baharyah Oasis; he brings manpower to raise the block. Suddenly, the edge of the deep trench crumbles and sand and rubble collapse into the hole. What will become of the young couple?

Joanna has lived in the UK, the USA and France. In New York, she worked for the Institute of Fine Arts of NYU and became interested in archaeology. While in France, she bought a 14th-century house and brought it ‘back from the dead’. She has written several historical books and many articles. Now living in England, she gardens and writes.