Home » Mali » Sahara - 1999

Sahara - 1999

Sahara - 1999

Jacek Pałkiewicz
2006-06-18 22:44:17

Displayed times (last time: )

We would have preferred coffee, but since there was no choice in the matter, we ate, well aware that there was no certainty when our next, invariably frugal, meal might be.

Gradually, our daily progress was slowed by accumulated fatigue. At last we came to a well, where we had hoped to dust ourselves off a little, freshen up our clothes, and take a break from the heat. The well was dry. Immediately we became thirstier than ever. We decided to ration our water in order to verify how long we could go without drinking in temperatures touching fifty degrees in the shade. After only a short while, our lips were parched, our throat was burning and our temples were pounding from the effort. Some of us soon cracked, and gulped water to soothe a thirst that seemed unquenchable. I held out for more than four hours, more through will-power than from any superior physical strength. When I did drink, I did so in a manner taught to me by a Tuareg many years before, taking little sips and keeping the water in my mouth before swallowing in order to enjoy it the more. The water was already warm by the time I swallowed it, and not at all refreshing, but little by little my body regained humidity, without expelling the liquid immediately in the form of sweat.

The heat seemed unbearable to us. There was no escaping the sun. Even so, the highest ever recorded temperature was much higher. In the 1920s a shade temperature of 57.8C was registered in Libya, which means that the ground temperature was some 15-20 degrees higher. The record for ground temperature is held by the Nevada desert, in Death Valley, where a temperature of 88C has been recorded. Deserts can be cold too. In January temperatures in the Gobi desert, in Mongolia, may be as low as -30C.

At night we laid out our sleeping bags in a sandy dip: all you need do is brush aside the fine surface sand to find firm, compact sand beneath. We used our rucksacks as pillows, but any documents we had, we ...