In October 1930 Kennedy Shaw accompanied Ralph Alger Bagnold on a trip from Cairo to Ain Dalla, into the sand sea, past Ammonite hill then past the Gilf Kebir south to Uweinat and on to Wadi Halfa, returning via the Arba’in slave road via Salima oasis, Kharga and then Aysut.
The western side of the Gilf Kebir was explored in 1932 by the Clayton-Almásy Expedition, headed by Sir Robert East Clayton and Count László E. Almásy, and accompanied by Patrick A. Clayton, Squadron Leader H. W. G. J. Penderel, three Arabian car drivers and a cook.