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With departure from Niamey imminent,
Paul gathers his team to assign drivers
to vehicles and give an overview of
the route.
On the terrace of the Hotel Sahel,
overlooking the wide, slow, Niger
River, the 2003 Expedition team has
come together for the first time.
The soft screeching of enormous fruit
bats can be heard in the humid night
air. For most of the team, this is
their first night in Africa –
and the beginnng of the biggest adventure
of their lives. The expedition leader,
University of Chicago professor Paul
Sereno, is addressing the group for
the first time…
“You’re on this expedition
for two reasons: you’re the
kind of people that want to make history
rather than just read about it; and
you think about other people on the
team, not just yourself. We have a
chance to explore a vast area that
noone has set foot in before - new
dinosaurs are waiting. It’s
going to be one of the most difficult
things you’ve ever done in your
life. If you’re only thinking
about yourselves, the expedition will
fail. Do you have the energy to overcome
the hurdles that you’ll inevitably
face on an expedition of this sort?
Do you have the energy to prospect
for hundreds of miles? To do the work
to make sure we can bring back what
we find? If you do, I’m confident
that we can bag several new dinosaurs
– and add a chapter to the story
of what Africa was like 90 million
years ago.”
Why Africa?
The most famous dinosaurs in the world
- Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops,
“Brontosaurus”
- come from a narrow strip of rock
in the western United States and were
discovered more than a century ago.
Africa’s dinosaurs are waiting
to be discovered. Once continental
drift had isolated major landmasses
like Africa, no two ever had the same
dinosaurs. Paul Sereno’s 2003
Expedition to Niger was conceived
to discover Africa’s unknown
dinosaurs.
Andy Gray
packs the back of one of the Land
Rovers
with the team’s personal gear.
Calendar for an Expedition
A large-scale Saharan expedition requires
months of detailed planning. Paul
began to assemble a team a year before
departure and, with six months to
go, was busy shopping for supplies.
With five months to go, the team packed
a large cargo container with five
tons of plaster, half a ton of dehydrated
food, a ton of camping and collecting
gear, and a replica of the 40-foot-long
crocodile best known as “SuperCroc.”
The container was shipped by boat
to the coast of West Africa, and arrived
in Coutounou, Benin, in August. It
was loaded onto a truck, and driven
to Niamey, the capital of Niger.
On September 11, Paul arrived in
Niger with a small advance crew. Their
goals were twofold: 1) negotiate with
the Ministry of Higher Education,
Research and Technology to obtain
the necessary documents to allow the
team to do fieldwork and 2) get the
vehicle fleet up and running after
three years in storage.
When the rest of the team arrived
on September 21 progress had been
made. The key documents were being
drafted and three of the four vehicles
were up and running.
Trucks and Papers
If you eavesdropped on the first days
of the full team’s conversation,
you might think the expedition was
about trucks – not about a young
team pushing back the frontiers of
knowledge about dinosaurs on Africa.
You might think the expedition was
mostly about finding a good mechanic
– not about surviving two months
in the Sahara.
The 2003 Niger Expedition vehicle
fleet consists of four renovated Land
Rovers, all between 10 and 15 years
old, three of which are veterans of
the original 1993 Niger Expedition
that crossed Algeria twice. A complete
set of new tires for each vehicle
had to be found and bargained for
(20 tires, including spares).
Nels changes
a tire.
The tires on the trailers
were flat. Every part of each truck
had to be greased into motion; wires
repaired and reattached. In a flurry
of satellite phone calls to a Land
Rover dealer in Naperville, Illinois
Paul and the advance crew were able
to order parts for the support crew
to bring in , which were unavailable
in Niger...continued
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