borogove

so i've finally found a qwerty keyboard! although the time i'm gaining by typing more quickly is probably not making up for the partiularly slow connection here.

anyway, to get back to where i left off -- our life in the desert looked something like this:

9:30 am: set out
10:15 am: stop to rest
10:30 am: set out again
11:45 am - 5:30 pm: stop for lunch and siesta
5:30 pm: have tea
5:45 pm: set out
6:15 pm: stop to rest
6:30 pm: set out again
7:15 pm: break camp for the night

so we weren't able to get very far during the time that we were actually trekking. each day, we spent a lot of time crouching under the shade of a bush, trying to sleep or read. or, in serge's case, observing the behavior of desert beetles, of which there are many varieties. we also spent lots of time watching kamal cook, because he mostly refused to let us help, unless it was to gather wood for the fire. but we did get to see some really lovely dunes and had one night sleeping under the clearest sky ever.

the next night we were looking forward to the same, but during dinner, the wind started blowing in out of nowhere, throwing sand into our eyes and our pot of stew and showing no signs of letting up. we managed to drag ourselves and our sleeping bags behind a bush, which provided some shelter from the wind, and kamal promptly went to sleep. serge and i, however, were not so lucky (or, rather, just not so completely at ease with the vagaries of desert life), and pretty much stayed up all night. we returned to douz the next day completely covered in sand.