Riding Desert Trail

A solitary traveler on her red, all-terrain bicycle, London-based Selby ( Riding to Jerusalem ) narrates the kaleidoscopic journey that took her the length of the Nile. Traveling to the river's source, she observed at close range the many faces of Africa, the varying degrees of hospitality, some bureaucratic indignities and the odd happenings that are the lot of the intrepid, but ``there was no occasion on which a sudden glimpse of the Nile didn't result in the lifting of the heart and a falling away of petty concerns and irritations.'' In Selby's trip from Alexandria to Lake Victoria, her communion with her well-equipped vehicle, with the overpowering monuments of ancient Egypt and their dubious modern counterparts, evokes admiration not only for the author's spirit of adventure, but for the acuity of her perceptions en route--particularly of foreign aid programs. Her book will bring pleasure to the armchair traveler. Photos. (Sept.)