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Sahara - 1999

Sahara - 1999

Jacek Pałkiewicz
2006-06-18 22:44:17

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and hot pepper.

Everything else would be regarded as superfluous. We would take no watches, or money, and would have no means of communicating with the outside world. We would affront the great eastern erg in a resolute mood, but with a healthy respect, nonetheless, for our adversary. We would carry only light (twenty-five pound) rucksacks, holding nothing inessential.
We set off from Douz, in Tunisia, with a number of camels, who balked at carrying any load and who were belching noisily on account of the vast quantity of water they had drunk before we left. These animals, for the creation of whom the Arabs give thanks to Allah every day, will trek up to fifty miles a day, carrying a burden weighing up to four hundred weight. They can go a week without drinking because their metabolism consumes water very slowly and their body temperature is 41 degrees Celsius, as opposed to the 36.8 degrees of a man. When they do drink, they gulp down 15-20 gallons of water in a few seconds. During a journey, they are content to nibble at thorn bushes, which they chew up very carefully.

Thorough-bred racing camels, or Mehari, are bred by the Tuareg. It is difficult to say whether pride or necessity is their principal motive for plying this trade. Mehari have become very expensive, however. One Arab told me gloomily in the market that he would give everything he owned for a racing camel, but that they were beyond price.

Our camels were more humble, but they did relieve us from the strain of carrying our rucksacks, while we plodded on, our ears buzzing from the heat, over the small, slippery stones of the reg, a broad expanse unbroken by anything which could serve as a point of reference. In the distance we could see a few greyish bushes, but nothing else. We were tormented by flies for the whole journey. They swarmed around us in clouds whenever we stopped swatting them, and it was impossible to get rid of them. The most pressing problem, however, ...