Tibesti Expedition Update
If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
It’s only a few days before I catch my flight to N’Djamena, the capital of Chad to start my next expedition. I have never been to Chad. I don’t know what it will be like as a country, although I have an idea. My purpose of going there? I’m going to be walking with camels across the Sahara to the Tibesti mountains in the north of the country to document hidden prehistoric rock art. And while I don’t know what to expect from Chad as a nation, I know what walking across huge swathes of desert is like. And that’s why I am nervous as I sit here in the UK. It is punishing, and unsurprisingly, thirsty work. We can throw into the mix of vast distances and mind melting temperatures some land mines, bandits and political instability for good measure.
On a previous expedition, I experienced runaway camels and it was a costly mistake, which I have learnt from. All the provisions were gone on the backs of the two camels. Lying under a bush and thinking this is where you die and then casually wondering if anyone will reuse your clothes is not something I would wish on anyone.
But there are lots to look forward to. The desert really does calm the mind. Some of my happiest memories are from travelling by camel in the desert. Your life becomes more simple and the objectives crystal clear: Where am I going to sleep? What will the camels eat? How far is the well?
Nietzsche’s famous quote, “if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you,” seems to be true for me. You can find peace in the desert, or you can find terror, depending on your state of mind. I have seen both, and I am drawn back to the desert each time I return, so I must be seeing more peace than terror in the abyss.
Like I said, I don’t know what to expect. And that makes me nervous. But isn’t that the point? A journey is a journey. An adventure is a journey that you don’t know the outcome of.
You can follow my adventure across the Sahara by camel into the super-remote Tibesti mountains on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/jcurlexplorer
Click here to read more about the expedition
