PREPARATIONS are underway in a mid-Kent village for an amazing camel journey across the Sahara Desert.

John Hare, who has made numerous expeditions with camels in Kenya's northern territories and in the Chinese Gobi Desert, plans to retrace the route taken by Swiss explorer Hanns Vischer in 1906 from Tripoli in Libya to Maiduguri in northern Nigeria.

The epic journey, made with camels in the company of freed slaves, crossed regions which were then unmapped and led to the discovery of desert rock art and Roman inscriptions in the middle of waterless, lifeless tracts of the Sahara.

Mr Hare, who lives in Benenden, is a long-time admirer of Hanns Vischer. He aims to follow the route in reverse - an ambition denied Vischer was refused permission by the-then administration in northern Nigeria.

This year's expedition sets off on September 25, with the 1,540-mile journey expected to last almost four months. Five men, headed by Mr Hare as expedition leader, three herdsmen, a guide and 25 camels, comprise the team.

An additional aim is to record the changes that have taken place in the last 100 years to the people in all three countries, their culture and the archaeological remains still locked in the desert sands.

Mr Hare said:"It will be a tribute to Vischer as a great explorer and to the grandchildren of the various people he encountered on route."

A website will link schools in Britain, China, the United States and Africa to the expedition's progress, with the site being sent educational material covering environmental problems and other points of interest to the participating schools geographical departments. Benenden School will be one of those taking part.

Mr Hare, 65, who has received full support from the two surviving sons of the late Sir Hanns Vischer, lives at School Farm, Benenden, with his wife, Pippa. He is chairman of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation which he founded in 1996 to protect the wild Bactrian camel in their known habitat in China and Mongolia.

The expedition is being sponsored by the National Geographic Magazine.