THE SANDSTORM

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1924 ARTICLE INTRO
SENUSSIS
SIWA
AMERICAN SHEIK
THE SANDSTORM
THE CARAVAN
JALO
BIBO
TEA AND RICE
LEADERSHIP
HELPING BIRDS
TRAGEDY
KUFRA
DESERT CHIVALRY
SLAVES
THE UNKNOWN
CAMEL AND MAN
EXTREMES
NIGHT TREKS
BY THE STARS
OUENAT
ROCK CARVINGS
END OF JOURNEY
Glossary
Editors Notes

 

IN A DESERT SANDSTORM[3]

The most interesting feature of the trip to Jalo was eight days of sandstorm.

The desert is usually very calm, with an occasional breeze, which becomes stronger and stronger; then gradually the land looks as if it has been fitted with pipes emitting steam. The fine sand first rises, but as the velocity of the wind increases heavier grains rise. When the sand gets as high as one's head, it becomes distressing, and perhaps dangerous, if the traveler has to face it. Now he is obliged to go very slowly, and if he is not careful and vigilant he may miss the way. But if the wind is blowing from the right or left, it is not so difficult, because the sand can be warded off with the Bedouin clothes.

One day we had to advance in the teeth of the storm, and I saw how it could keep moving slowly. To stop means to be drowned by the sand. The camels instinctively know this and continue to advance in site of the tormenting blast. On the other hand, the moment the rain comes they stop or even kneel down.

During my previous travels I had collected many of the rules of sandstorms and their behavior, according to Bedouin information, but to my great regret, they were all broken in those days of trial.

Sometimes, however toward sunset, when we had been battling for hours against the seemingly interminable bombardment, the wind would stop dead, as if a master hand had given a signal. For an hour or more the fine sand and dust would settle slowly, like a falling mist. A short while afterward the moon would rise, and under the pale magic of its flooding light the desert would assume a new aspect. Had there been a sandstorm? Who could remember? Could this peaceful expanse of loveliness ever be cruel? Who could believe it?

 

 

 

IN THE CUSTOM OF THE DESERT

At Siwa the author put aside his khaki uniform and assumed the garb of a Bedouin sheik (see text, page 237). [photo page 241]


 

[3] Ahmed's description of sandstorms (from his Lost Oases book published 1925) has become classic. I have found him quoted by many others as one of the most exotic of all descriptions.—SaharaSafaris.org Editor.

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