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Sahara - 1999

Sahara - 1999

Jacek Pałkiewicz
2006-06-18 22:44:17

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Sahara, leaving behind heaps of garbage. We spoke of this race one evening, with our eyes burning from the sand, after twelve hours of trekking on foot and on camel back, while we were eating a frugal Beduin - no tinned foods or bottled beers for us - supper of dates and pomegranates. The youngest of our company did not agree with me, even though, in the course of the day, we had run across a pole bedecked with a red ribbon which fluttered like a Nepalese prayer, and which marked the spot where, ten days before we set off, three young Frenchmen had died while venturing in a land where there are neither tracks nor signposts. Their bodies had only been discovered after four days of search. It is a solemn thought that before their end they must have been driven insane by anguish, fear and a sense of their impotence.

While we were arguing the point, in whispers, so as not to break the silence, a flash of light, followed by sounds, caught our attention. What? A jeep? Kamel, our guide, alert as ever, had already realized what was happening. The jeep was being driven by hunters, who were looking for the gazelle which inhabit the uadi which still retain some traces of water. We were about sixty miles from the nearest oasis, on a low ridge which overlooked a borderless land of silence, and the jeep, with its malign yellow eyes, appeared an intolerable intrusion.

Our evenings were never too long. The labours of the day and the thought of the efforts required of us on the morrow made us wish for rest even more than we wished for food. We used to dive into our sleeping bags as if they were feather beds. Insomnia was a problem for none of us, though we sometimes woke up feeling as if we had broken every bone in our body. We made no concessions to ourselves, however. We simply rolled up our sleeping bags every morning and pressed on. But where to and why? home-lovers may ask. Why not stay at home with your feet snuggly encased in your slippers? It is difficult to reply, except to say that on an expedition you always have the feeling that you will shortly meet something which you have never seen, or heard of: an experience which will make the sweat and fatigue you have expended fully worthwhile and which will remain a permanent memory in your mind and heart. For me such experiences are beyond value and the greatest of all goods.