|
August
31, 2000
Camp I
Gadafawa
5:17 am
Just as we were making
progress, the lead vehicle stopped to gather
wood - and the last remaining tendrils of
light slipped away. Just at that moment
the water tank got stuck again. We were
ten miles away from our campsite. We discussed
the options; camp where we were or forge
ahead.
The team decided to continue on, using GPS
coordinates from 1997 to navigate to camp.
Slowly in the dark we made our way holding
our breaths that with the water tank stowed
for the night, no one would get stuck. The
combination of 2000 years of Toureg guiding
and 21st century technology got the team
to the campsite.
It took 10 hours
for a four hour drive with all of the truck
breakdowns and getting stuck in the sand
but the team finally arrives at 9pm. No
tents tonight, just sleeping under the stars.
By 10:00 pm we were
eating a spaghetti dinner, cooked in record
time. Half an hour later the team was asleep.
The only disturbance in the night was when
we were awakened at 11:30pm by the National
Geographic water tank pulling into camp
- empty. Despite the plan to cache the tank
for the night, the drivers attempted to
reach camp and 1.5 km away hit a rock and
the tank turned over. Nearly all the water
was lost. They will have to return to Agadez
today and make another trip for the film
crew. We will have to worry about water
ourselves soon enough.
It is light now and
we are surrounded by a ring of pale pink
dunes. The sun isn't quite up. The rounded
forms of people sleeping, exhausted form
yesterday's drive and numerous stops to
dig out the heavily loaded vehicles, are
all around - on the tops of vehicles, or
on the crests of nearby dunes.
Dino is romping around
furiously, digging random holes, prancing,
attacking beetles - fully recovered for
the trauma of yesterday's journey. If all
goes well today we will set up camp-and
head out to try to relocate some of our
1997 sites.
Gabrielle
Lyon
Team Member, 2000 Expedition to Niger.
|
