August 27, 2000
Road to Agadez
Touha
Giraffe Hotel, Room 3
1:30am

Our cargo is still in Benin. A truck breakdown, a gas shortage in Benin, and a general truckers' strike in Niger conspire to put us increasingly behind schedule. Each day wasted waiting will come back to haunt us at the end of the expedition. We have an ambitious, but possible, fieldwork itinerary, provided we adapt to these kinds of adversities. Which is why, on Thursday, Paul made the decision to split the team: One group is traveling to Agadez to begin preparations for the field with equipment we have in storage, one team continues to put pressure on the shipping company and to pursue remaining lost baggage.

The truck drivers of Niger have called a general strike: there are no deliveries being made anywhere in the country. Even if the truck is repaired and gas can be found for it, once the cargo reaches the border, we have no way to get it to Agadez. Eric, Rud and Greg will work in Niamey and, when the cargo arrives will repack the cargo and deliver precious fossils to the National Museum. Then they will make a beeline for the field so we can launch the expedition into high gear.

We departed at 5:00am this morning for a 600-mile drive to Agadez. Our goal: reach Agadez by nightfall. However, three flat tires and two new gas pumps later, here we are in Touha, less than halfway to our destination.

Jack Conrad with a flat
Photo by Gabrielle Lyon

Hans Larsson repairing a water pump
Photo by Gabrielle Lyon

Outside spectacular lightning flashes light up the sky, though only a sprinkle of rain falls. I look over my daily log, rife with notes of fits and starts as the truck Paul and I drive suffers from air in the gas line (among other problems).

None of the team is a professional mechanic, but over the last few years (and hundreds of vehicle problems) Paul, Eric and Chris are able to put their heads together to reason through most of the vehicle problems that come up. We're just lucky not to have had FIVE flat tires, since we only have four spares.

Repairing the flat
Photo by Gabrielle Lyon

The distance is not long, but the way is slow. First there are stops: the police , the douane (customs), peage (the toll). Each stop is marked by a rope, stretched across the road, flanked on either side by a sand-filled barrel. At night the rope is extremely hard tosee and a kerosene lantern in a red bucket glows to serve as a warning light.

Roadblock on the road to Agadez
Photo by Gabrielle Lyon

In addition to the imposed stops, we also need to stop for gas ,a three hour stop in Birnin Koni, near the border with Nigeria, where we are able to get a very good price (280 CFAs/liter) of blackmarket gas from across the border. We end up filling the trucks and extra containers to the tune of 360 liters.

Getting gasoline in Birnin Koni
Photo by Gabrielle Lyon

As we travel we pass Fulani herding cows, see Hausa children at work hoeing millet fields, ride past young boys slapping the sides of donkeys as they are pulled on three-wheeled wagons. And, more frequently, we see graceful camels, carrying riders or loaded sky high with cut grass or wood. Whenever we have vehicle problems we serve as the gathering point for lots of onlookers.

Roadside Onlookers
Photo by Gabrielle Lyon

Niger is at the tail end of the rainy season and the scene from the window as we drive is radically different from how I've seen it on previous expeditions. Instead of barren rock and scrub, the roads are lined with bright green fields of millet. In a few short weeks the millet will be harvested, laid out to dry and then ground (in most cases) by hand.

Photo by Hans Larsson

Soon, though all of this will pass into desert and we will be in Agadez- what was, nearly 1000 years ago, the historic stronghold of the Touareg empire and what is now, the starting point for many a journey to see the dunes, and what is home base for us in our quest for dinosaurs.

Over the next few days we will organize our supplies (in storage since 1997) arrange for guards for our base in Agadez and our camp in the field, meet with the appropriate officials and, hopefully, head out to the field in a few days. Although we have enough equipment to at least begin work with the partial team, the cargo contains critical collapsible water containers that will allow us to work for extended periods without having to return to town. The trip to Agadez is entirely off road through the desert and a minimum of four hours each way. In the meantime, we need to come up with a plan for food, as well as water, that will allow to at least begin work.

In just a few short hours another five am departure, Agadez, the desert, and dinosaurs on the horizon.

Gabrielle Lyon
Team Member, 2000 Expedition to Niger.

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