Home » Mali » Sahara - 1999

Sahara - 1999

Sahara - 1999

Jacek Pałkiewicz
2006-06-18 22:44:17

Displayed times (last time: )

in the Sahara is largely the fault of those who vaunt its charms: the desert is described in romantic terms, as the ideal location for an adventure, but without the necessary admonitions to prudence and caution. Many continue to believe that the desert is a place of sun-scorched sand dunes, where there is no sign of life other than the mirages provoked by the heat. The desert, however, is more complex than that. It contains lots of sources of life. Seeds which remain dormant for years before bursting into flowers flourish there, as do animals who bury into the sand for shelter and the prickly bushes which appease the hunger of the goats and camels.

There are also men. Nomads by necessity, who continue to live in the most hostile imaginable enviroment, where water is the most precious commodity, where the range of temperatures is dramatic and where the sands advance inexorably to cover the remaining oases.
A white man who wants to test himself here, should try to immerse himself in its harsh realities. Man is the most durable of all the animals on the planet. He is always able to succeed, at the cost of some sacrifice, in acclimatising himself to his surroundings.

For years I travelled alone, making brief friendships on my way, in order to be able to go where impulse and sudden inspiration took me. Nowadays, however, I usually travel with graduates of my School for Adventure and Survival. I organize expeditions through jungles and over glaciers, or wherever our imagination drives us. For our most recent journey I proposed something both new and different. We would cross the desert with camels, eschewing modern means of transport like motor bikes or jeeps. We would abandon European modes of thinking and live like Beduins: drinking from the goat-skin bags they use as water bottles, eating dates, kesra, the yeastless bread the nomads cook in the ashes of their camp fire, and cous cous, their national dish of steamed semolina with dried tomato ...