October 8, 1980

TAMANRASSET — I-N-GUEZZAM, ALGERIA
Sidi woke us at 5am and we were rolling by 6. I had bought a cheche (turban/scarf) for the trip, but it, along with my food and extra water, was in the bag that was lost somewhere in the truck, so I kept my hat pulled down in front and my collar up in back. By now, I had figured out how to sit with some comfort, on a sack of flour, with my feet hanging outside.

The "road" from Tamanrasset to Agadez varies between wide open spaces (90%) and some barely recognizable tracks from other trucks (10%). Today, fortunately, was not as bumpy as last night. We stopped for 5-10 minutes every hour to refill the radiator. The terrain was fairly varied: some sizable rocky hills, occasional dunes; sometimes parched, cracked earth, infrequent shrubs and small trees. We took a mid-afternoon siesta in the shade of a giant rock formation-- there were a half-dozen of these, all strangely carved by the wind, often narrower in the middle than on top, with caves and holes, most about 300-600 feet high, one with a big, flat rock resting on its peak. I climbed one of the smaller ones, but didn't stay long because I was a little faint from hunger. I'd purposely not eaten after being sick and now I couldn't find my food.

While we were stopped here, the mechanics decided to change a tire and when they unloaded the spares, I found my lost bag-- the buttered bread was all over the bag, the cheche was stained, but the melons were intact and the water, a godsend. After breaking camp, we continued our stop-and-go tactic until we reached the border station, I-n-Guezzam, at 7pm. The office was closed, so we had to spend the night-- someone had a gas stove and heated some canned food, the aroma of which nearly drove me crazy.

PHOTO CREDIT 1