DAY SIXTY-EIGHT We left the camp at 7:30 and drove into town to retrieve our passports then drove out to the Hydroponics Garden about 4 miles from town where fresh veggies are grown for the French staff at the Arlit uranium plant. The garden is an oasis in the middle of nothingness with healthy rows of corn growing in border-dyked plots and all manner of vegetables growing in air-cooled hothouses. We bought some leeks and marrows then bade civilization goodbye and drove into the desert.
Baking heat and scorching glare accompanied us all day as we bounced across the flat, endless expanse of nothing. Totally devoid of life, the desert is completely awesome. The heat rolls in shimmering waves across the bare sand and silver mirages shimmer and ebb in the ever-changing air currents.
There was no road as such, just tracks left by other vehicles and concrete-filled drums every 1 kilometre to show the way.
We reached the border station in late afternoon, too late to go through so we camped out in the desert. Linda has a cold now & she went to bed early. We slept on the ground some distance from the truck with a trillion brightly-shining stars above us and the cold desert air all around us.
CurseOfTheTraveller 