Well, we’re in the desert so we started the day pushing the truck out of soft sand using the sand mats - need to practise because there's going to be lots more to come.
Drove all day through the edges of the Sahara. My image of the Sahara was robed and turbaned, bejewelled and be-daggered men riding camels and horses across a panorama of dunes – but so much for that! Initially we were driving through rubbly country with small hills and stones. But some we saw more and more sand, and we lunched among a pile of beautiful dunes, not a vast expanse in every direction but a huge area reaching back from the road into the distance in sculptural lines, colours and textures. We quickly covered the dunes with footprints, people running, climbing, and rolling up and down the dunes, sandals in hand, bare feet sinking deliciously into cool sand beneath the sun-warmed surface. Warm at last though the breeze was still cool.
For the rest of the road we travelled a road in very bad repair, with progress much quicker on the desert tracks running parallel with the asphalt. Every now and then, after warning squeals from the crow's nest, we hit a particularly bumpy section, and were thrown violently in the air, hitting our heads on the overhead nets and lockers flying open. There was absolutely nothing in any direction; the country completely flat to the horizon, with huge mirages shimmering to our right.
Drove due west off the road to camp. Not a dimple to the flat horizon, and a lone tree for toileting privacy.
But with that flatness came a stunning sunset of red sky painted across the ruler-flat horizon; black then red in solid lines. Then moonlight so bright we couldn't see the stars. Enjoyed a long night by the fire with nearly everyone staying up much later than usual. Kelvin extravagantly allowed us two extra pieces of wood when all the cooking was done.
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