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..
cont'd
Rudd and Dave
carry a folded tent through the maze of
supplies in the compound yard in Agadez.
With just two days to work, half the team
loaded jackets while the other half inventoried
expedition equipment and packed it for storage...
for the next expedition.
When we left InAbangharit
on November 22, we knew we had a big task
in front of us: in addition to closing the
open jackets from Camp 4, we were faced
with loading all 274 plaster field
jackets, 22 specimen boxes, and 3 tons of
sediment in 100lb bags, onto a truck. We
also had to inventory every piece
of equipment and pack it for storage. The
48-hour bonanza (which included getting
Dino a health certificate), was a blur of
counting, taping and logging. With the exception
of a toast over couscous late at night on
the 23rd of November, Thanksgiving
went by almost without notice, so preoccupied
were we with the task of leaving Agadez.
All of this took place
on the heels of a week of ferocious and
clever excavating of the last great discovery
- the huge sauropod. Faced with little time,
and even less plaster, we excavated the
animal but had to leave the jackets open
after they were turned. They suffered the
100 mile piste drive to Agadez well and
were quickly closed with the supplemental
plaster Bido brought us from Niamey.
As Jack uses
a pry bar to raise the jacket, Hans quickly
slips a strap underneath. Next, the strap
will be hooked onto a crane and the jacket
will be hoisted 30 feet into the air - then
lowered on to hte back of a truck for the
next stint of the voyage: Agadez-Niamey.
The same crane that
was put to work to erect Suchomimus
back in September for the Flamme de la Paix,
was put into action in our compound yard.
Jacket after jacket was loaded, followed
by specimen boxes (containing smaller, delicate
fossils), and bag after bag of sediment.
While Eric, Hans, Jack
and Greg working with the crane, the rest
of the team worked to inventory and pack
expedition supplies. Every tool, every extra
bag of soup mix, every brush and every spoon
was catalogued. We packed late into the
night: two trailers, a water tank were hitched
to Land Rovers, roof racks were strapped
with rolls of burlap and white lawn chairs
(37 and 15 respectively), and we paused
only to watch two of the National Geographic
documentaries about the 1997 expedition
with the friends we made - and had worked
with so closely over the last few months.
Alhassane Dine Dine
"Bido" - our "Minister d'Connaisance," (Minister
of Information), phlegmatic and humorous,
our team member, driver, and translator
and fixer.
Ibrahim Abambacho -
our vertitable "godfather," who has, for
the last ten years watched our backs, guided
us through the ins-and-outs of Agadez, and
even visited us once in the States.
Mohammed (a.k.a "Rambo
is tired") - the whiz automechanic that
kept our Land Rovers rolling all season.
Hima - jovial and charismatic,
currently of the Adrar Madet tour agency
and the up and coming premier chauffeur/guide
of the region.
Ryouni - owner of the
compound, co-organizer of the Cure Salee,
and a towering figure (tall, that is) amongst
the Touaregs of Agadez.
Suspended 30
feet off the ground, a 1000 pound jacket
is carefully
lowered by crane into the truck that will
carry it to Niamey.
Too, some of the guards
who spent time with us in the field came
and went throughout the evening, including
Omar and Salle, to wish us luck, and say
goodbye. As we drank lukewarm Fanta and
Coke, and ate our last plate of couscous
and tomato salad from the Targui restaurant,
it seemed a fitting end to the fieldwork.
The expedition, however,
was far from over, as we knew full well
when we got up the next morning at 5:00am
to continue the packing. Ahead of us: an
800-mile drive to Niamey, loading the cargo
container and erecting Jobaria.
We departed Agadez with
four heavily loaded trucks, (two pulling
trailers), and Dino, unhappily in his kennel
in the back of the Blue E truck, surrounded
by boxes and cargo bags.
Moments after
the accident the trailer has already been
unloaded.
Despite Greg's attempts to bring the fishtailing
trailer under control after a tire blew,
the momentum of one and a half tons of gear
packed insidemanaged to flip the truck.
About 90 miles outside
of Agadez a tire on the White Tdi Land Rover
blew a tire, sending the heavy trailer it
was towing into a fishtail that turned the
truck over. The truck was going slow by
that point and, very probably, that is what
enabled Jack and Greg to climb out of the
vehicle relatively unhurt.
No broken bones, hardly
a scrape or cut on the two of them, but
within minutes Greg's shoulder started to
swell and it was clear he would need to
go to Agadez for an X-ray.
The team burst into
action, first blocking the road in both
directions with rocks and saw horses to
deviate on-coming drivers.
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