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Sahara - 1999
Sahara - 1999
Jacek Pałkiewicz2006-06-18 22:44:17
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www.palkiewicz.com
IN THE LAND OF THIRST
Our aim was to cross the Sahara on foot, like the explorers of former times. No air-conditioned Land Rovers, or other mechanical aids, would be employed: we would use camels instead. Our goal was to stray off the beaten track, away from the usual tourist haunts.
Our program made no concession to comfort, but, in exchange, guaranteed tremendous experiences and the chance to live every day to the full. We knew we would have to battle constantly against unforseen dangers and would have every opportunity to show our courage. The Sahara! Land of silence, thirst and solitude, whose siren-like voice fills anyone who has been there with the desire to return.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote: "Love for the Sahara, like all love, is born of one swift glimpse, never of a full view". I have come to know all its features in the past twenty years: the erg, the sea of dunes portrayed on picture post-cards; the serir, a flat smooth plain of gravel or rock fragments; the reg, where the desert is an expanse of small brown, black, red and white stones; the hammada: high, pebbled plateaus; the mountains where you risk dying of cold; the chott, lakes dry except for some brackenish water; the uadi, ancient rivers where vegetation still grows. Contrary to what is usually believed, the Sahara is not empty desert, but rich in both plants and animals that have proved hardy enough to withstand its extremes of temperature and drought.
In the Sahara a moment of inattention can be fatal. Although the civilized world is close (an hour's flight), it becomes unreachably remote once you have entered into the desert. Fear creeps over you: you are aware that you might easily die. Stepping off the stone-marked paths, mistaking a turning, failing to find a well, playing the fool on your own with a motor bike can all leave you hopelessly lost and put your life in danger.
That people still die of thirst
...
See photographs from:
Mali Gallery
