Do Not Take this Road to El-Karama

It must have been lovely country to drive through – I have a vague memory, through the tension, of dappled forests passing by on either side and of gently undulating landscapes – but I’m afraid that much of it passed me by metaphorically, just as much as it must have done the transport riders of the early days, whose greatest fear on the Great North Road was not blow-outs but bandits and marauding tribesmen.