The Anthologies: Expedition: The Anthologies

By Tahir Shah

During a career of thirty years, Tahir Shah has published dozens of books on travel, exploration, topography, and research, as well as a large body of fiction.

Through this extraordinary series of Anthologies, selections from the corpus are arranged by theme, allowing the reader to follow certain threads that are of profound interest to Shah.

Spanning a number of distinct genres – in both fiction and non-fiction work – the collections incorporate a wealth of unpublished material. Prefaced by an original introduction, each Anthology provides a lens into a realm that has shaped Shah's own outlook as a bestselling author.

Regarded as one of the most prolific and original writers working today, Tahir Shah has a worldwide following. Published in hundreds of editions, and in more than thirty languages, his books turn the world back to front and inside out. Seeking to make sense of the hidden underbelly, he illuminates facets of life most writers hardly even realize exist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Secretum Mundi Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Jun 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781914960376

Book preview

For Sir Ranulph Fiennes

The Anthologies:

Africa

Ceremony

Childhood

City

Danger

East

Expedition

Frontier

Hinterland

India

Jungle

Morocco

People

Quest

South

Taboo

By Tahir Shah:

Travel

Trail of Feathers

Travels With Myself

Beyond the Devil’s Teeth

In Search of King Solomon’s Mines

House of the Tiger King

In Arabian Nights

The Caliph’s House

Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Journey Through Namibia

Novels

Jinn Hunter: Book One – The Prism

Jinn Hunter: Book Two – The Jinnslayer

Jinn Hunter: Book Three – The Perplexity

Hannibal Fogg and the Supreme Secret of Man

Hannibal Fogg and the Codex Cartographica

Casablanca Blues

Eye Spy

Godman

Paris Syndrome

Timbuctoo

Midas

Zigzagzone

Nasrudin

Travels With Nasrudin

The Misadventures of the Mystifying Nasrudin

The Peregrinations of the Perplexing Nasrudin

The Voyages and Vicissitudes of Nasrudin

Nasrudin in the Land of Fools

Stories

The Arabian Nights Adventures

Scorpion Soup

Tales Told to a Melon

The Afghan Notebook

The Caravanserai Stories

Ghoul Brothers

Hourglass

Imaginist

Jinn’s Treasure

Jinnlore

Mellified Man

Skeleton Island

Wellspring

When the Sun Forgot to Rise

Outrunning the Reaper

The Cap of Invisibility

On Backgammon Time

The Wondrous Seed

The Paradise Tree

Mouse House

The Hoopoe’s Flight

The Old Wind

A Treasury of Tales

Daydreams of an Octopus & Other Stories

Miscellaneous

The Reason to Write

Zigzag Think

Being Myself

Research

Cultural Research

The Middle East Bedside Book

Three Essays

Anthologies

The Anthologies

The Clockmaker’s Box

The Tahir Shah Fiction Reader

The Tahir Shah Travel Reader

Edited by

Congress With a Crocodile

A Son of a Son, Volume I

A Son of a Son, Volume II

Screenplays

Casablanca Blues: The Screenplay

Timbuctoo: The Screenplay

Secretum Mundi Publishing Ltd

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First published by Secretum Mundi Publishing Ltd, 2019

THE ANTHOLOGIES: EXPEDITION

© TAHIR SHAH

Tahir Shah asserts the right to be identified as the Author of the Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Visit the author’s website at: www.tahirshah.com

ISBN: 978-1-914960-37-6

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Contents

Introduction

Hannibal’s Secret Chamber

When the Incas Flew

Patagonian Days

Grave-Robbing Guilt

In the Emperor’s Jeep

Roasted Sloth

The Modus Operandi

On the River of God

Shipwrecked

A Short Walk in the Upper Amazon

In the Empty Quarter

Mules to Tulla Wallel

The Cross of Lalibela

Next Stop: The Jungle

The Meaning of Hardship

The Cliff-top Monastery

Descent into Miao Keng

The Pot Noodle Aphrodisiac

On the River

Watching the Rot

The Accursed Jungle

Introduction

AS A SMALL

child at Langton House, I had a battered old cardboard box in the corner of my bedroom.

On each side was a picture of two giant upright bananas, a hammock slung low between them, along with a caption: ‘Welcome to Bananaland!’

The box arrived when I was about six, and was still there in the corner of my bedroom when Langton House was sold seventeen years later. In that time, it got more and more bashed about, but was much prized for what it contained.

Expedition equipment.

I’m not sure if it was the banana box that first sowed the idea of exploration, or whether it was the precious objects inside that stirred me. I like to think it was a mixture of the two.

For as long as I can remember, the banana box was a receptacle for the kind of gear I imagined would be needed on a grand expedition. As I’d never been on an expedition, I relied on The 1971 Scout Annual and word-of-mouth information passed on by the full gamut of characters who visited us.

Whenever an elderly gentleman strode through into the hallway, I’d slink out of the shadows and ask if they had been on an expedition. Sometimes they responded politely that they had not, or that they had but it was too long ago to remember the details. But not infrequently, they would clap their hands together as if having won the Derby, and reveal everything they knew.

One of the most reliable elderly gentlemen who came to Langton House was a military man called Dr Grimes. No matter the weather, he was invariably dressed impeccably in tweed, a farmer’s checked shirt, and a regimental tie. Langton House seemed to instil politeness from its visitors, but Dr Grimes took courtesy to an entirely new level.

Looking back, I sense he had absolutely no interest in discussing expeditions with a six-year-old but, such was his expertise, he gave the impression that nothing on earth would give him greater pleasure.

Before Dr Grimes would visit, I would ask my parents over and over if he was a true expert on the expedition business.

‘Of course he is!’ my father would exclaim.

‘No one’s done more expeditions than Grimes,’ my mother would add, looking up from her knitting.

‘What kind of expeditions does he know about?’

The question would cause both my parents to appear transfixed, as though they had seen angels.

‘He’s done them all,’ my father would say.

‘Searched for treasure?’

‘Oh, yes, of course.’

‘Lost cities?’

‘So many, yes!’

‘Unknown animals?’

Again, my father would nod frantically.

‘Another one of his specialities.’

‘Do you think Dr Grimes minds me talking to him?’ I would ask.

‘I think he likes it very much,’ my mother would say.

‘Why?’

‘Because I suspect it reminds him of his youth.’

Over the years Dr Grimes visited, he would ask how my equipment was getting on, and would ask to see any new bits and pieces I had sequestered away in the banana box.

Sometimes I’d show him a few feet of parachute cord I’d found on the ground in the village, or a clutch of bottle caps pressed from a sheet of extra-thick tin.

‘Very useful,’ Dr Grimes would intone. ‘This will be just what you need when you’re on the expedition.’

One day, when Dr Grimes and I had got to know each other better, I hurried over as soon as he’d blustered in through the hallway.

‘I think it’s time you start planning some expeditions,’ he said.

‘Some expeditions?’

‘Yes.’

‘Don’t you think I ought to begin with one expedition and see how that goes?’ I asked anxiously – after all, I was only eight.

‘Oh no… no, no, no,’ Mr Grimes responded fast. ‘You must always plan several expeditions at once.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it’s the only way to be certain of thinking big!’

‘How big should I be thinking?’ I probed warily.

Dr Grimes beckoned me forward. By this point he was sitting in a low armchair in the drawing room, his face in line with my own.

Stepping forward, I observed him, my mind mapping the wrinkles, the broken veins, and the individual strands of silvery bristle that formed his moustache.

His bloodshot blue eyes peering deep into mine, he responded:

‘When you’re older you will find something to be true.’

‘What, Dr Grimes?’

‘That almost everyone you will ever meet will set the bar very low. They don’t push themselves.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because they’re frightened.’

‘Frightened of what?’

‘Frightened of failure!’

My expression was taut, my mouth cold.

‘I don’t want to fail,’ I said.

‘Nonsense!’ Dr Grimes boomed. ‘If you stop fearing failure and start doing things, you’ll ultimately succeed!’

‘What expedition should I plan?’

Dr Grimes tugged out a silk handkerchief, blew his nose, grunted, and said:

‘One of each I should think.’

‘A lost city…?’

‘Yes, that’s a good start, and a lost treasure, and a plant and animal that are unknown, and a species of butterfly… and what about meteorites as well?’

Fetching a pen and paper from my father’s study, I made a list and showed it to Dr Grimes. Pulling out a monocle, he went through it one item at a time.

‘I want you to promise me something,’ he said all of a sudden, his bird-like hand snatching my wrist.

‘Something about expeditions?’

‘Yes.’

‘What?’

‘That people will say you can’t find a lost city or a treasure… or that you’re too young or too unprepared. Every time they doubt you, make up your mind to prove them wrong – do you understand?’

‘Yes, Dr Grimes, I do.’

Slipping away his glasses case, he blew his nose again, and grunted twice.

‘The reason to go on an expedition is not to discover about the place you are traversing,’ he said. ‘But to learn about yourself. Know yourself inside and out and only then will you be the man you’re destined to be.’

Tahir Shah

Hannibal’s Secret Chamber

THE ARMOURED STEEL

door unlocked, then inched open.

As Will, Emma and Chaudhury stepped across the threshold, a deafening hissing sound prevailed, as though there was a gas leak. A series of dazzling electric lights blasted into life, illuminating the chamber.

Shielding their eyes, the three of them stepped forward, just in time for the steel security door to slam behind them.

Their eyes growing accustomed to the brightness, they began to appreciate the scope and scale of the vault.

A hundred yards square and twenty feet high, its walls and floor were laid in reinforced steel. Packed with expedition equipment, the chamber appeared to