LIFE IN THE DESERT

After 48 hours, our vehicle broke down twice deep in the desert. We also used up all of our drinking water and ate all our food. When I tried to drink from the can, I found out that the gallon can was empty. It was the worst moment in the journey. It is as a result of this kind of situation that Owen and Owen (1984), claimed that the dilemma they could compare to the hostile situation of the Cry of the Kalahari, when there were no nearby place to get water and food, no dwellings, no contact with the humans, and no one to rescue us in an emergency. In fact, he added that “if we died, it was unlikely that anyone would realize it for months”. However, after two days, we found an Oasis (water reservoir), where we fetched the water that we would drink for the rest our journey.

This experience in the desert was a very interesting story that changed my perception of life. I actually learned much about the importance of drinking water, after my perilous journey across the Sahara desert to Morocco by land in the month of December 2012. I am from Nigerian. Nigeria, a country located in the Sub-Sahara Africa within the western axis, while Morocco is located in the northern part of Africa. Nigeria has a border with Spain and Algeria. The desert is an area that has high temperature and less than 10 inches of rain annually, 14 percent of the earth’s 56 millions square miles of land (Cloudsley and Thomas, 1975).  The Sahara desert is situated between Niger and Algeria. It is the most fierce, dangerous, and largest desert in the world, and it is third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic, which are cold deserts. There are so many characteristics of a desert. Cloudsley and Thomas (1975) claimed that winds, a constant feature of deserts, tend to be strongest in spring and early summer and to blow hardest during the day, whereas the nights are relatively calm. The speeds of the winds covered 50 miles an hour, and average only about 10 miles an hour, which is also their annual average. At one point in the desert, after my drinking water was depleted, it took us two days to find a water reservoir in the desert. That was when I learned that Sahara desert is the fiercest, dangerous and horrible place I have ever visited.

On December, 14, 2012, I travelled with two of my friends, Osas and Fred to Morocco by land. We anticipated arriving Morocco after crossing the Sahara desert in two weeks. We had designed our route to cross the Sahara desert after arriving Niger Republic. The journey from Benin City (my home city) to the border took two days because my bus had to stop in Abuja due to a curfew that started from 10 pm to 6 am daily during that period.

On the following day, my bus arrived at the border between Niger and Nigeria. The village we arrived is known as Zidane, a small village located at the border between Nigeria and Niger Republic. The border has a small office where the immigration officers search passengers to make sure they are not carrying illegal items or things that are dangerous or prohibited. They also stamp passports for entry or exit. When we were done with them, a man collected some money to pay for our transportation from this village to the last village in the desert.

The last village before the direct journey across the desert is called Arlit. It is a small village, where virtually everybody is a Moslem. The men are always on their way to and from, either to work or mosque. We stayed a day in this village until we were able to pay for an available vehicle that could transport us across the desert to the first village in Algeria called Tamarasset. The payment was a little bit higher than what we expected, but the worst was the fear of what was waiting ahead of us in the desert. There was so much to confront in the desert. Tooby and Cosmides (1990) claimed that the desert has a dark side because its natural environments contain many dangers, such as predators, venomous animals, and lightning, that can strike quickly and without warning. Other scholars have observed that, the evaluations of wilderness programs have also documented numerous positive responses to wilderness, including an increase in psychological energy, a greater self-confidence, and a sense of awe and wonder (Ewert, 1986; Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989). Nevertheless, our response was not in favor of an increase in psychological energy.

Every passenger on the bus, was scared, praying, and seeking divine protection throughout the journey. In the past, we had heard of so many horrible and terrifying stories and myths, on how vehicles missed their way in the desert and all the passengers would die of starvation and thirst, how the evil spirits could kill someone mysteriously, and how someone can develop psychological problem as a result of fear. As a result, these terrifying stories implied threatening aspects of nature that could evoke strong fears and other negative emotions (Ulrich, 1993). This is why we were all enslaved in this circumstance.

Consequently, we were advised to have a gallon of water and enough snacks for the journey. Fred, Osas and I bought a very big gallon container that we used to carry. We expected that it sustained us for the entire journey across the desert. When the truck arrived at the departure point, we were crowded in the vehicle. This truck, which normally transported three passengers, was made to carry 33 passengers. During the journey, many passengers fell from the truck, but the driver refused to stop to pick them, until the passengers shouted and hit the truck so that it would finally come to a halt. At a point, I lost a friend who saved me from falling from the truck. He was left behind during one of the resting points. At one point in the journey, the driver stopped the truck and asked us look for a safe place to have our lunch, dinner or breakfast. Thereafter, our ugly experiences continued in the Sahara.

The Sahara is like a grave yard because of its quietness. The only sound I could hear was the noise of the wind. The desert was almost completely lifeless. I barely found trees, shrubs, grasses, birds or other kinds of animal. However, at point, we saw an antelope. Our driver tried to hit it, but it escaped. Other significant things that were visible in the deserts were mountains, dunes, valley, hills and few plants that have no leaves but thorns. The weather was so hot that my drinking water burnt my tongue.

On the second day, when our vehicle broke down twice deep in the desert, we used up all of our drinking water and ate all our food. When I tried to drink from the can, I found out that the gallon was empty. It was the worst moment in the journey. However, on the following day, we found an Oasis (water reservoir), where we fetched the water that we would drink for the rest our journey.

Finally, after four days, we said good bye to the Sahara desert. The Sahara desert is the fiercest, dangerous, and most horrible place that I have ever visited. The journey that we had anticipated would take three days later took a day longer. The loss of my friend, the thirst in the desert, the hotness of the weather during the day, the frustration and fear that accompany the journey, made me swear that never I will never travel across the Sahara desert again.

References

Cloudsley, J. & Thomas, E. (1975). Deserts and grasslands: The world’s open spaces. Harrington: London: Aldus Books.

Ewert, A. (1986). Fear and anxiety in environmental education programs. Journal of Environmental Education. 11 (3): 31-37

Kaplan, S. & Kaplan, R. (1989). The experience of nature: a psychological perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Owen, M. & Owen, D. (1984). Cry of the Kalahari. Boston, MA: Hougton Mufflin.

Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (1990). The past explains the present: Emotional adaptations and the structure of ancestral environment. Ethology and Sociobiology. 11 (4-5): 375–424.

Ulrich, S. R. (1993). Biophilia, biophobia and natural landscapes. In S. R. Kellert, and E. O. Wilson (Eds.), The Biophilia Hypothesis. Washington, DC: Island Press.