The wind picked up in the early morning, whistling through the truck and down into my sleeping bag. Had to snuggle down and wrap the hood tight around my nose. Delicious warming porridge for breakfast.
Uninteresting early drive, back onto the asphalt, and then off again towards the Hogger Mountains. Not much to see. Then the flattened slightly and we sped up, but still felt more like the Big Dipper and Mad Mouse ride combined than a Bedford truck. Those at the back were tossed around like dice, lifting 30cm off the back lockers. Reading became almost impossible. But as we approached the mountains we left behind the straight horizons.
Fantastic early lunch and wash stop at Hirhafok, where we stripped off for an icy douse in a tiny irrigation channel. We were soon the centre of attention of women, children, and turbaned men. The women were fascinated by Nikki’s underwire bra and wanted one but she quickly dressed. I found my other one and tried to trade it for jewellery but the decoration was worth far more to them than a novelty bra. The women had fine bone structures and beautiful eyes, and were heavily jewelled, wearing necklaces, bracelets and circular silver earrings about 6cm across that had distended their ear piercings. Flies swarmed their children's eyes and filthy noses. The people were friendly but the women got agitated at too obvious photography.
The scenery got more fabulous after lunch. Having initially followed a road through rolling hills that looked like huge piles of gravel, we started seeing larger stones and boulders and mountains. We continued through a weird landscape with several different, contrasting textures: gravel, boulders and huge slabs of mountains. Some looked like huge lumps of used Plasticine, others like organ pipes, or bacon rasher stalactites, or giant crystals. Breath-taking formations around nearly every corner. We twisted through valleys and along flats, ground up hills and down long slopes.
Saw five gazelles, one loner and two pairs. They raced away from us, flashes of red and fawn, flying over the loose stones. We practically drove into two and Kelvin revved the old girl very hard try to keep up with the leading figures. I have always had great hopes for lots of wildlife but didn't expect to see any in the Sahara - this desert is constantly surprising.
Finished the day at the bottom of the Hermitage Peak, surrounded by mountains and with a view down a magnificent valley and up to the Hermitage hut - climbed slightly above for a shot of another spectacular campsite.
The night cooled rapidly and became windy. Sat on the truck writing the Christmas show song that Vicki and I will perform. Later, a few of us sat around a huge pile of coals listening to the Beatles. The wind stopped completely for a couple of minutes before gusting again into a crystal clear but freezing night.
Add comment
Comments