EXPLORER John Pilkington is back in Hampshire after an epic journey across the Sahara desert, where it was feared he would be taking his life into his hands.

John has just returned from a four-month odyssey across northern Mali, a region the Foreign Office warns is too dangerous to visit.

The Foreign Office has advised Britons against travel to the north of Timbuktu, the western border with Mauritania and the eastern border with Niger because of bandits operating in the area. And they have warned against "indiscriminate terrorist attacks, which could be against civilian targets."

However, undeterred, John embarked on his amazing desert odyssey. He accompanied camel trains travelling from Timbuktu to an even more remote town Tauodenni, where salt is still dug by hand.

John is an experienced traveller who has written books and made radio programmes about some of the wildest places on earth.

450-mile journey

For his latest trip, the Winchester traveller attended the 'Festival in the Desert', before embarking on the 450-mile journey through some of the most hostile landscape on earth. In scorching temperatures, he reached the very heart of the Sahara, taking him through stunning desert landscape to give a taste of what Sahara life was like a millennium ago, when the Taoudenni salt mines were first established, and when salt was worth its weight in gold.

John said: "It went better than I ever imagined. My fears over security were unfounded. The hardest part was the first week of riding a camel.

"But I loved it. I fell in love with the desert and living in that environment."

"The greatest danger was in getting lost and not finding a well to replenish water stocks. "But I had a guide, a Moor, who had the amazing ability to know exactly where he was. Without a guide you would be a goner. Many people have died in the desert just by getting lost.

"The Moors have a reputation as a brutal people. I approached him with some trepidation but he was the kindest gentlest man."

This was the latest of epic expeditions undertaken by the Hampshire explorer, who 15 years ago gave up an office job to lecture, write and broadcast, as well as to travel.

He has completed a 500-mile solo crossing of the Himalayas in western Nepal, and he has also retraced the old Silk Road thanks to the opening up of the border between China and Pakistan.

John has written a number of books about his travels, including "An Englishman in Patagonia" which recounts his eight months exploring the southernmost tip of South America.

He is now recovering and plans a series of fund-raising lectures. Later this year John will be taking his slide/sound show "Heart of the Sahara" around the country, including appearances at the University of Winchester's Stripe Theatre on October 12 and November 24.