Bloody hell, it's Ted Edwards ..

Blimey! You wait for one reason to write about the Sahara, then another one turns up on the very same day! Yes, folks, as coincidences go, yesterday's was one of the best I've had in a long time!..

You might recall I mentioned the Sahara in yesterday's blog, which was on the theme of travel. I was telling you that I'd been sifting through lots of my old travel photographs to make a new webpage on my site, and mentioned that a cloud of sand and dust was blowing up to the UK from the desert. Anyway, after writing the piece I headed off to sunny old Eccles where some of my archive photographs are going to go on display - more on that soon - and then I nipped into Morrison's to get me tea and some lagers. Well, guess who I bumped into! Only Ted Edwards, that's who! After all these years! Ted bloody Edwards, in the flippin' flesh..

Ted Edwards? Ted Edwards is a long-time resident of Eccles - a former folk singer and peripatetic teacher - who, in 1983, took it upon himself to walk - alone - through what's called the Empty Quarter of the Sahara Desert! The BBC did a great programme about it, with a wonderful opening shot of Ted in a cowboy hat getting on the 166 bus at Eccles bus station - next stop Timbuktu! I did some pix for the MEN at the time. Anyway, the trip nearly bloomin' killed him! One of his camels stood on one of his canteens of water and meant he ran out of good old H2O long before he was meant to! It was only a chance meeting with some Bedouins who took him to a well that saved his life. Anyway, I've always rated Ted for doing that and he's been high on my list of 'top blokes' ever since. Thing is, not so many years after his adventure, poor old Ted had a stroke and the last time I saw him - maybe sometime in the early 90s - he was hobbling about on a walking stick and having one hell of a time even trying to talk to anyone. Imagine that for an explorer who used to sing for a living! Now Ted's in a mobility scooter, still wearing a stetson and sporting badges on his jacket from his travels..

Well, of course I pounced on him, told him of my admiration and - hey, you gotta do it - booked him in for a portrait shoot next week! Ted Edwards, I salute you!..