Night in Tunisia

Wild Camels, Deep Sahara and Cell Phones

It's getting past due for information about our desert trek, and with more adventures comming up, I'm afraid I won't be able to get all of it down. Here is a bit of information about the trip. I'll be sure to dig up some of our photos for you in the next couple of days too.

We rode from Tozeur to the famous Tunisian Dunes (where Star Wars was fillmed) in one day and rode back the second day. The total trek was about 110 km. The mounts were not entirely comfortable, and every hour or so we opted to walk for ten or twenty minutes. Loren walked more than Jason or I and I think he prefered it to the hard seat. But it was a challenge for any of us to walk, especially on the first day as we rode through the rough, sparse scrub of the Sahara under a sun burning full overhead at temperatures reaching more than 38 degrees.

We were pouring sweat and consuming our water much faster than we ever would have imagined. We had to wrap our faces up completely in our Touareg scarves leaving nothing showing but our eyes (and Jason even put on sun-glases). The heat poured down and bounced back up, coming at us from all directions. The temperatures had not been expected, and I'm sure our guide would have insisted we leave earlier in the morning had he known.

I would like to mention about our guide that he walked the entire distance there and back wearing plastic flip-flops, the kind you find in america designed for poolside lounging in your back yard. 110 km through the Sahara in two days in flip-flops. Next time you go to the store and look at shoes remember that, and be amazed at what people who don't have much money do to get by.

We saw things that sparked a grand sense of wonder. The vistas, the sun, the dunes in the evening rising up to a clear sky and sunset. But the most amazing moments for me were watching the wild herds of camels. My mount was always able to percieve them before me, and so I kept an eye on the direction his ears were pointed. In the distance on the gentle rises of the Sahara's srub landscape, they appeared to be semi-circles on two stilts with a curved handle protruding from one joint where the semi-circle meets a stilt. Up close they were fabulous, ranging in colour from dark brown to grey and even white. Their enormous humps are hairy on top, likely protecting their water supply from excessive heat. I know it sounds backward, but after 35 degrees you want as much covering on you as possible to trap the sweat next to your body and conserve it. Exposed skin in the desert is a prime area for water loss and it is evaporated off of you as fast as you can sweat it.

There were some very surreal moments in the desert. My personal favorite is when we were riding, four hours into the desert, gasping from the heat and wondering at the expanse of desert scub-land, when Loren's cell phone went off. It was his mother, calling from Canada to say hello. He chatted with her for about 10 minutes before turning off his cell phone for good. The blusey ring tone had been most troubling to our sense of adventure. We wanted to believe we were inaccessible by civilization. Alas, these days that is almost an impossibility.

posted by tiaraletourneau @ 5:44 p.m.