Algeria © Anne Quemere
« Aman Iman » claims a Touareg proverb, « Water is life » and if ever there was one element that I didn't miss in the course of my previous challenges is water. In the desert its forever present in your mind considering that its so scarce and most precious. It hasn't rained for two years in this region of Southern Algeria. Two years spent watching the land dry out and the plants shrivel. That's enough to throw me, the Briton, off my rockers. One must consider that I was raised and lived most of my life facing Nor'wester storms. Our scouting expedition in the Hoggar's Tassili allowed us to consider some ideas of Pierre Schmitt's plan: crossing from Djanet to Tamanrasset in a kite-buggy. The first lesson was hard to learn and not much different than what was taught by the Ocean: be patient...a sport at which I've become almost excellent ! I wonder what the difference may be between a windless day at sea or in the middle of a desert by 40°C temperatures... again windless. In the end, they're identical, no wind no way to fly a kite and then begins the incredible waiting period. Seeking shade behind boulders, we often had to wait for rare moments where wind and land combined perfectly for the buggy to move ahead a few kilometres. The wind was quite unstable varying from 5 to 20 knots and always gusty. I've experienced better conditions before, but I have to admit I've known worse too ! Heat, difficult terrain and deadly acacia spines for the buggy tires were difficult to the equipment. The sails required long hours of repairs after the casings gave up. To summarize there's a lot of work to do before the project may be viable, but this expedition did allow us to better understand the obstacles ahead. Anyways, this intense immersion in the desert brought us forever changing scenery due to the exceptional light, in this part of the world. Thanks to Shérif, Sofiane and Ibrahim our Touareg guides, we learned that to survive in such a hostile environment we must consider working in unison. Life here isn't based on individuality. Solidarity isn't a vain word. Life in that part of the world requires that we would pay more attention to the world we live in... Many thanks to Cotten Company, and Marine Sat, my technical partners on this trip.
