Carlos Perez Marin

JOURNAL

This morning I woke up to witness a battle of flies, but I could say mini-drones too. They lifted the theft to impact each other, face to face. It was quite surprising.

The heat or the lack of coolness during the night foreshadowed a day with temperatures around 35-37ºC. Before leaving, I asked Nefaa the type of terrain we were going to cross in order to put on, or not, the hiking boots, since he told me that we were going to have small dunes but then a lot of stones, I left the sandals hanging on a camel.

The first dunes made us go around them and the spaces left were so suggestive… But sometimes we walked on large flat rocks at the same level as the sand, as if the Romans had been here and had built roads. Besides, the color of the rocks could change, black, grey-blue, brown...

When I reached the small mountain range, I realised that we were going to climb, but first we had to cross a “field of dunes”. Indeed, isolated dunes in the middle of a black ground (gravel on sand), which made a more accentuated contrast.

The problem with the beauty of the landscape is that it makes you stop to take photos (2D and 360º ones) and videos, but Nefaa and the camels don't stop, that is to say, after each photo, I had to speed up the walk to catch up with them and each time it is an effort that I must make, if we add the fatigue, the heat and the first slopes, it was normal that I had problems afterwards, headache... The climb, in addition, was on the sand, which made the walk even slower and harder. On the other hand, the view was magnificent on this “field of white dunes”.

On the “plateau”, small acacias, large pebbles, sand and gravel. It looked as if we were walking through a catalog of “in-situ terrazo”, with several background and gravel colours, black, gray, brown.

At one point, I thought I was going to have to get on the camel, but eventually I started to think about things that might take me away from the present moment. I think it was the worst moment of the 5 qafilas. 3h30 after departure we encountered a small acacia tree to rest.

Once I laid down, I didn't move for 2 hours before eating an egg, a tomato and a portion of cheese (La vache qui rit), some bread I made yesterday and an apple. Then the nap… In turn, Nefaa has eaten, again, bread with dry meat cooked in water. Once the meal is finished, Nafaa cannot sit back and do nothing. The 4 hours of rest, he only laid down for 20 minutes. At about 15:00 he went to look for the camels, but he still hadn't returned after 45 minutes... Each time, I wonder what would I do if he didn't come back or if he did without the camels?

I had forgotten that during the trip, apart from the beetle tracks, this morning I observed small spots on the sand, rather, on the pieces of sand. Arriving at the dunes, I understood that during the night there was a little rain, in fact, yesterday, when arriving at the camp, I saw a kind of fog far, near the mountains and I asked the question to Nefaa: Will there be rain tonight? Because we don't have a tent...

Finally, drops of water fell but a few kilometres from our position.

Even if we left at 16h00 I thought we were going to walk an hour and a half, or less, but when I saw Nefaa speeding up, I thought he wanted to get to a specific place before sunset. The problem was, I was dead. The day had been very hard with the rise of the mountains and in addition, Nefaa wanted to shorten the path that followed the bed of a river, this forced us to go up and down small hills, on a ground of stones and sand, which was dangerous because fatigue prevented me from placing my feet correctly with the risk of having a sprain. At least the chosen spot was beautiful.

At the beginning of the night, a man appeared with a shotgun… He greeted Nefaa and they already knew each other because both were from Chinguetti. He was traveling with 2 camels which he brought to his son who was some place between Tidjikja and Tichitt, with a herd. He had dinner with us and then the two of them went to hunt rabbits... I was almost asleep when I heard 3 shots, resulting in 2 rabbits, including one for us. We are going to change the menu tomorrow.

As the moon came out, the wind picked up and we had to put out the sand supply all night long...

The wind kept blowing throughout the night and I couldn't sleep well but it made us move earlier than usual. At 7:00 we were walking, still heading south. From the start I was thirsty, despite the half liter water I drank while loading the camels. I tried not to think about thirst and eat tangerines as late as possible. I also had to do a mental exercise not to think about how much we had left. I thought about meeting my friends in Atar, I thought about going to the beach in Nouakchott and Las Palmas, I thought about what I was going to do with all the documentation, I compared this moment with those during my training in Ceuta (and Malaga), yes, again. The main difference? The absence of the sea, and the breakfast (coffee with milk and toast with oil and tomato)...

Everything was fine in the monotonous terrain, pebbles and sand, except the first time I peed, the urine was red! I had already experienced this during Qafila Thalitha, it was a symptom of dehydration, and consequently, I had to drink more water.

Nefaa told me that today we were going to go through a well. I thought it was near the mountains or hills that we were crossing perpendicularly, but I saw 2 white 500 l water tanks, in the middle of an esplanade, between 2 arms of land on the dunes. Next to them there were solar panels and a small pool with water flowing all the time. When we arrived 4 donkeys were drinking, they saw us and they stood beside us so that we could fill our cans and the camels could drink. When I was about to fill my bottle, Nefaa warned me not to do so because there was too much salt. As we left, another group of donkeys approached and they waited their turn. It took us another 20 minutes to rest under a small talha.

This morning we saw car tracks, on the 4th day, and we heard a propeller plane while resting.

Having started the walk 25 minutes earlier, got us going through all the schedules, which is good because we could enjoy the landscape while we were preparing dinner. The days before, as soon as we settled in (after letting go to eat the camels, look for wood...), the night fell. During the 2 hours (walk), it was very interesting to cross rocks 5-6 m high, black-green, very spectacular to see the camels between them. Some rocks looked like sculptures, others abandoned space shuttles.

At the end of the landscape I saw a lake of dunes, quite high, which scared me, but Nefaa told me that we were going to bypass them tomorrow. Since the afternoon we had wind, I tested for the first time my glasses for the sand that I had read in Méharées (T. Monod) but that Zaida had also told me (recommended) in Nouakchott. 

"NO LUCK," was the answer when I asked Nefaa the question, what would he do if we ever had a strong wind at night and didn't have a tent. So, last night we had NO LUCK. In the middle of the night the wind started to blow with a speed of close to 50 km/h. We had chosen a place with sand to be more comfortable, but we should have chosen one next to a shrub or even behind one of the rocks. I felt how the sand flowed between my things, which I always put on for protection behind my head, but the sand got everywhere, even in my half-opened sleeping bag. I could find, without opening my eyes, the glasses and the mask against COVID, if not, I was going to breathe only sand. Then I closed the bag completely and covered part of my face with my turban, so that the air could enter but not the sand. I know I got a little sleep, but it has been a nightmare.

In the morning, the wind continued and we had all our things half engulfed in the sand.

Despite the lack of sleep, we had a quick tea and at 7h40 we were already walking. The first 2 hours were good, we went through rock formations, as if someone had grouped the round black rocks. With each passage, Nefaa found a corridor with sand or with stone slabs. Between the formations there was gravel mixed with sand, but from one point on, beige rocks took the place of black, then isolated dunes. Nefaa had explained to me that we had to bypass a large stretch of dunes and that made us walk between mountains, where the dunes seemed to be climbing them. There were quite interesting effects. After 3h30, exhausted, we stopped next to a talha, very tired and still with a lot of wind which made us breathe and eat sand. Maybe soon I will have blue eyes like the Fremen...

We are 160 km away from Tidjikja and in theory we have to do “only” 20 km per day, that is to say, to walk 5 hours per day, while in Morocco, we could do 25 km with the same duration. Even if the sand is still present, having it with other materials made the walk “easier”, but Nefaa has already told me that we still had 2 days ahead with dunes, it would be days 10 and 11, before arriving at the first village since our departure. At least, with Nefaa, I can let myself be carried away, he knows the terrain very well and he controls, not the distances but the time to reach each point of rest.

Anyway, I can't figure out what's going on with me. Today I had problems with dehydration again, while I drank before leaving and from the first hour, on top of that it was not hot, thanks to the wind. And then I started to worry because it has been 5 days since “I did not find the toilet” (Qafila Oula was 8 days). Is it because of the bread, the walking...? I had no idea, but for the next qafila I'll bring something.

As usual it was windy during the rest. Nefaa continues to cook, I think because he didn't like my two dishes I made on the second day. Today he used, again, dried camel meat, but with pasta. I suggested adding tomato sauce, but he didn't want to.

When it comes time to leave, the usual question was, how long (he controls time but not distances) are we going to walk? He told me, 2h. He sounded like a lot to me, but I told him if I got tired I would get on the camel...

It was weird having mountains as a reference, especially with the help of Google Maps showing us our position, even if the image doesn't have too much detail, at least it was enough to get my bearings. This is how I know now that we only need to do 20 km a day to get to Tidjikja on the agreed date.

*I had downloaded the area we were going to transit at Chinguetti on my Google Maps application.

On our way we found the dunes, in orange colour, very beautiful. In the distance you could see the set of dunes we were trying to avoid. If you looked at them, it was as if they were challenging you...

Nefaa wanted to stop after an hour but I felt good and I offered to continue for even 1 more hour, but he was looking for a place to settle down without sand and with trees to protect us from the wind and so that the camels could eat. There was a tree with thorns like the talhas but with a vertical shape. Its name is taichot (Balanites aegyptiaca) and camels love it.

At the same time as we were setting up the “camp”, a small herd of goats with a few camels and donkeys passed by. 2 young people from Chinguetti led them, one with a shotgun. At tea time, Nefaa explained to me that at home he was listless, but now that he's in the desert, he was fine. He is not a nomad but he is someone from the desert. On the other hand, his two sons and his daughter hardly ever accompany him.

I asked him his opinion on T. Monod but he never met him, nonetheless his brother did, because he used to go on expeditions with him. I would like to talk to his brother the next time I come to Chinguetti, maybe during Caravane Ouadane.

Credit videos, pictures, texts and drawings: Carlos Perez Marin

Cameras: iPhone XS Max and Leica M6 (Ilford FPE Plus 125)