|
Team works
to chisel around - and separate
two large jackets at the titanosaur site.
Greg's late-breaking
discovery of a titanosaur (a long-necked
plant eater) late in our prospecting has
put the pick-axes, as well as plaster, to
work. What began as a series of mid-region
vertebrae and part of a pubis (one of three
dinosaur pelvic bones), led to a pair of
illia (a second of three dinosaur pelvic
bones), ribs, a string of neck vertebrae.
but no skull.
Tim has to lie
down to chisel under a jacket at the titanosaur
site.
The bone dives deep
into the ground so that in order to jacket
the ribs, the team has carved a trench nearly
four feet deep. The main jacket - which
includes the string of central vertebrae
- looks extraordinarily like a mummy and
has required people to chisel and pickaxe
through three tunnels before the jacket
could be flipped.
The site has consumed
three bags of plaster already and could
use at least two more - if we had water
or plaster on hand.
1:30pm
Just as Jack and I are
about to leave the titanosaur site and head
for the l'eau d'chameau well, Bido drives
up in the blue Toyota. He is shaking his
head.
The story comes out
in French and Hausa simultaneously as Bido
tells us, and Omar tells the guards, what
has happened.
"The big truck left
last night and broke down 60 kilometers
from camp. It is completely broken and
will need a new motor. Yes! It broke down
in the same place it did last time. The
truck is finished. I have brought 300 liters
to camp and filled the empty bidons, but
the truck won't make it to camp. We are
going to have to drive our trucks out to
it and bring things in ourselves."
A jacket at
the Suchomimus site is so heavy
it can only be
flipped with the aid of a Land Rover.
Unbelievable. On the
eve of the close of Camp 1 we have to rethink
everything.
Our original plan was
efficient:
The big truck comes
to camp and drops off plaster and diesel
for the Land Rovers. We load it with our
field equipment. The truck drives north,
drops off our equipment and 6000 liters
of water then drives back to Camp 1 where
it makes a tour of our sites and we load
the heaviest jackets on to it. The truck
drives our jackets, and our extra equipment
and supplies back to Agadez. At that point
Camp 1 is completely dissembled, the team
drives north, uses the cached supplies and
water for one week. At the end of the week
everyone drives back to Agadez. If there
are any jackets we can't carry, we hire
the big truck to go north to pick them up.
Bido tells us, "The
truck is finished. I will have to go back
to Agadez and find a new truck to bring
the jackets and our supplies out of the
field."
Now things will be complicated.
There's no way for us to break down the
camp and send the jackets (and extra supplies)
back to Agadez. And we may not be able
to travel north unless we find a way to
get the water off of the truck.
Paul pulls out the topo
map and we locate the two reputed wells
used by Taquet and Lapparent. The team goes
into planning mode.
"If we go in the morning
and bring all the water we can to camp,
then at least we won't have to worry about
water."
"We could still move
up north and just come back to the camp.
We don't have to break down the camp, but
one or two of the guards would have to stay
here."
"We could just outfit
the trucks with supplies for three or four
days, get a sense of the richness of the
area and come back to Camp 1 for water when
we need it."
"If we do that, we could
also take less food - and we wouldn't have
to bring plaster up at all the first trip,
which would also lessen the amount of water
we'd need to bring up."
"We're still going to
need to find a way to get the jackets out
of the field - and our camp stuff."
"What's on the truck
besides water?"
"Plaster. The tripod
for lifting the jackets. Diesel for the
trucks."
"We have to have the
plaster to finish the sites we're working
on now before we can move north."
"By the time we move
north, Bido may have found another truck
to come out."
Although there is some
confusion about whether or not we need to
go to the well for plaster water, the team
has quickly adapted to the situation to
make a new plan.
Bido has Agadez water
with him, which we quickly split up among
the vehicles. Work is limited now by both
plaster and water, but there is pickaxing
and chiseling enough to keep the team occupied
for the rest of the day.
6:30pm
Back at camp, Jack (Chef
d'leau) and Tim have further assessed the
water situation and report over dinner:
Jack: "We're not using
160 liters of drinking water a day. We're
using closer to 300. Tim and I calculated
all of the washing and cooking water, as
well as what the guards have been using.
We've been way off. It's been hard to tell
because so many people have been taking
water directly from the water balloon rather
than the bidons."
Almost twice as much
water - that would explain the discrepancy
between how much water we thought we had
and how much water we thought we were using.
The plan will move forward
in the morning: drive out to the truck,
unload everything we can - plaster, diesel
and especially water - and bring it back
to camp. We are already discussing the possibility
that someone may need to make a run into
Agadez to pick up more diesel.
10/8/00
Rudd's Birthday
Photo by
Gabrielle Lyon
After a French-toast
breakfast in honor of Rudd's birthday, four
trucks head out, as planned, to off load
supplies from the big truck while the rest
of the team heads to the titanosaur site
to investigate the new bones that were
found late yesterday.
20 kilometers from camp,
Eric spots the big truck - moving forward!
We are stunned!
When we meet up with
the truck, the driver, all smiles, explains:
the phone call we were able to place last
night reached the truck owner . He got the
necessary part and drove out right away
to the truck. They fixed the problem in
the night by lantern light and are all ready
to head north.
We follow the truck
back to camp, off load the water, deliver
plaster to the people working at the titanosaur
site and, over lunch, decide to revert to
plan 1 - with one change: we need more diesel.
Bido, who now knows
the route like the back of his hand - although
he's always prospecting for a "better route"
heads into Agadez to stock up on diesel
for the trucks. Eric, meanwhile, climbs
aboard the big camion to pick a spot to
place the two 800 gallon water balloons.
If all goes well, Eric
and the big truck will return tonight. We
will break down camp tomorrow and load the
jackets - along with most of our camp supplies
- onto the big truck which will return to
Agadez. Bido will return tomorrow with the
extra diesel - just in time for our move
north the following day.
Gabrielle
Lyon
Team Member, 2000 Expedition to Niger.
|
