Desert exploration

Africa

• Kalahari Desert
• Sahara Desert
• *Michael Asher & Mariantonietta Peru – made the first known crossing of the Sahara from west to east, by camel and on foot, from Nouakchott, Mauretania, to Abu Simbel, Egypt, 1986–87, a distance of 4500 miles Michael Asher lived for 3 years with the Kababish nomads in the Sudan.
• * Eva Dickson – was the first woman to cross the Sahara Desert by car. In 1932 she met the former spouse of Karen Blixen, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, in Kenya, and they became lovers. After her meeting with Blixen in 1932, she took a bet and drove by car from Nairobi to Stockholm in 1932, thus becoming the first woman to have crossed the Sahara by car.
• * Heinrich Barth – crossed the Sahara during his travels in Africa and the Middle East during 1845–1847.
• * James Richardson – explored the Sahara and Sudan he died in the notorious hamada in the Western Sahara.
• * Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs – German geographer. First person the cross Africa north to south. Named a place Regenfeld near Dakhla Oasis in southern Egypt after experiencing a rare occurrence of desert rain.
• *Karl Alfred von Zittel German palaeontologist who accompanied Rohlfs.
• *Henri Duveyrier – He undertook a number of fossil-hunting explorations in the Sahara.
• *Albert-Félix de Lapparent – Explorer of the northern and western parts of the Sahara.
• *Victor Loche – first identified the sand cat while exploring the North Sahara.
• *Joseph Ritchie – sent to find the course of the River Niger and the location of Timbuktu. He died in Murzuk.
• *Helen Thayer – 20th-century walker and explorer.
• *Jeremy Curl – youngest known European to walk across the Sahara from north to south. Explored areas of the Tanezrouft, Hoggar mountains and Adrar des Ifoghas, living with the indigenous Tuareg.
• *Michiel Franken- First man to ride a sidecar through the sahara

  Asia

• Taklamakan Desert China – Charles Blackmore 1993
• Gobi Desert Mongolia
• Rub' al Khali or the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula:
• *Bertram Thomas in 1931 and
• *St. John Philby in 1932: first documented journeys by Westerners
• *Wilfred Thesiger in 1946–50 crossed it several times and mapped large parts of it
• *Youngho Nam in 2013 crossed on foot 1,000 km from "Salalah, Oman" to "Liwa, United Arab Emirates"

  Australia

• Central Australia – general term covering the arid regions in the Australian interior
• *Jon Muir – made the first ever unassisted crossing of the Australian desert on foot
• * Edward John Eyre – expeditions to Lake Eyre and the Flinders Ranges in the 1830.
• * Charles Sturt – expeditions from Adelaide in the 1840s
• * John McDouall Stuart – accompanied Sturt 1844–1845; expeditions 1859 & 1860, 1861–1862
• * Ludwig Leichhardt – expeditions 1844–1845 Moreton Bay to Port Essington, 1846–1847 and 1848 west from Moreton Bay, where the entire expedition vanished
• * Burke and Wills – south-north crossing of Australia 1860–1861 where both died on the return journey
• * Augustus Gregory – searched for Leichhardt in 1858
• * Ernest Giles – expeditions 1872–1876
• * William Tietkens – expedition in 1889
• Gibson Desert
• * Ernest Giles – crossed the desert in 1874
• Great Sandy Desert
• Great Victoria Desert
• * John McDouall Stuart – skirted the desert in 1858
• * Ernest Giles – crossed the desert in 1875
• Nullarbor Plain – desert plain on the western part of the south coast of Australia
• * Edward John Eyre – expedition 1840–1841
• Tanami Desert
• Simpson Desert and Sturt Stony Desert
• * Charles Sturt – expedition 1844–1845
• * Cecil Madigan – expedition 1939 across the Simpson Desert
• * Warren Bonython and Charles McCubbin were the first North to South traverse on foot in 1973 They pulled a cart with supplies and utilised two air drops of water and supplies.
• * Louis-Philippe Loncke – unsupported expedition 2008 across the Simpson Desert on foot from North to South
• Western Australia – a large and generally arid region
• * Robert Austin – expedition 1854
• * Alexander Forrest – expeditions in the 1870s and 1880s
• * John Forrest – expeditions in the 1870s and 1880s
• * David Carnegie – expedition in 1896-7
• * Larry Wells – expedition in 1896-7

  North America