Special update by Joshua
Miller
Last-Minute Run-Around
Packing
the vehicles means filling both
the inside and roof rack, as the
team prepares to leave for their
first field area.
Ever try to pack 3,500 gallons
of water? That's 28,000 pounds,
or 14 tons of water! That's what
we calculated we would need in our
first two camps. You can only drink
about two gallons max each day,
but you also will want to wash your
face, cook some pasta and wash dishes
- and if you find any fossils, you'll
need water to mix with plaster.
You can't pack water in just any
old suitcase. In the desert we use
huge rubber water balloons to store
water in the desert. Smoke jumpers
sometimes use them when they are
fighting forest fires. But even
with a way to store the water in
the field, we couldn't possibly
carry 14 tons of water in our Land
Rovers. We needed to find a truck
with a tank in Agadez that could
drive the water into the desert.
While Paul worked with Didier to
find a truck with a tank that could
bring the water out for us, the
rest of the team was hard at work
packing, prospecting, and collecting
supplies for both camps and food
for three weeks. Getting 500 pounds
of plaster, 50 rolls of toilet paper,
five sacks of rice, the six water
balloons, everything else into our
four Land Rovers, and making sure
there was still room for the team,
was no small feat. With our vehicles
packed solid we headed out of Agadez
on October 1.
Desert Scenes
Looking
like they are powered by jet engines,
the team's Land Rovers kick up quite
a dust trail as they race off across
the desert.
We headed out of Agadez on a piste
that took us northwest towards the
tiny oasis town of In Abangharit.
The desert engulfed us quickly as
we departed from Agadez. Leaving
the oasis behind, barren wastelands
of sand dunes stretch into the distance
as far as our eyes could see. Seeing
the harsh realities of the desert
wilderness unfold before us, we
all did a quick mental check to
make sure we had everything we could
possibly need for the next three
weeks.
Once we entered the desert, the
two most common sights were small
acacia trees and single-humped camels.
In fact, about the only animal to
seemingly enjoy the 120oF
heat, were the camels. These lumbering
beasts split their time between
wandering the desert for the few
greens they can find and sitting
under the shade of a rare acacia
tree. Camel calls sound more like
someone clearing their throat than
an animal communicating, and these
odd sounds added to the strangeness
of our new surroundings.
The
vehicle tain stops in its tracks,
as the lead truck
carrying 14 tons of water experiences
its first breakdown.
It's easy to travel from Seattle,
WA to Portland, OR on good roads
with well-maintained cars, but what
about 190 miles on informal track-ways
through the desert with decade-old
vehicles? You can imagine the trip
is far from easy. In fact, half-way
to our first camp, the truck containing
our most valuable resource, our
water, broke down. With no choice
but to repair the vehicle in the
field, we set to work diagnosing
the problem. A major problem with
the truck could cause days of delay,
so we all held our breath as we
investigated the damage. It turned
out the battery terminals had corroded
so badly that the engine could no
longer attach. Although miles from
the nearest garage, Nels improvised
a solution using parts from our
computer system. It took two hours
of hard work before we could once
again get on our way...continued
