“THE SAHARA”.
An ancient citadel of isolation, “the
Sahara”, named the world’s vastest tropical desert known to man. It’s very physiognomies
seem to combine against life, yet its menacing attributes belies hidden secrets
that even deserts hold water, thus life, the Sahara stretches from the west
coast to the east across the entire length of the northern part of the African
continent. Africa’s nomadic tribes have dwelled in the deserts for ages
embracing change and continue to do so even as the topography of the landscape
is being added to and subtracted from. With every land, arid or not comes
customs, myths and conflicting histories passed down from one generation to
another most times. Sahara Desert, a hostile and less known region stretches from
the Atlantic coastal desert region to the lower point of the Eritrean coastal
desert close to the Gulf of Aden to its highest point at the eastern desert
bordering the Sinai by the red sea. From the Atlantic coast in the west this
arid landscape boasts of reddish rock steep mountains and sand dunes, the
western Sahara stretches for 3,000 miles to the eastern Sahara, volcanic
eruptions left behind solidified black coloured rocks that rises into the
heavens.
Views of a chains of gigantic red
dunes and an array of endless mystically shaped red rocks and clusters of solid
black rock mountains dominate the landscape, demanding the traveller’s minds consider
seriously their undertaking that is as bizarre as the land formations unveiling,
giving credence to a hail of legend, and myths with superstitious mysteries. The
fractured red soil, solid at the outer rings of the desert before giving way to
simmering sandy terrain, and hostile sand storms with a merciless sun overhead.
Only the valiant venture into such unreceptive habitat, despite the occasional
remembrance of life by a darting lizard that soon disappears into the boiling
sand it emerged from. How does one draw a written observation of such an
unwilling land and to what purpose? Nomadic natives never venture beyond
certain points guided by invincible myths and legends, and for the exploring
spirit the strange high pitch howling sounds of varying ghostly ancient tales
serves as a caution to such souls who travel beyond the last clusters of makeshift
huts dwellers with malnourished herds and a few camels for possession.
The pitiless heat emanating from
centuries of baked layers of red soil rises with puffs of eerie doubt in the
traveller’s mind as one journeys deeper into the unknown and unfriendly
landscape of red and black Rocky Mountains with incredible shapes that suggest
they were moulded into shape by mystical hands with centuries of magical
prowess, impresses upon the traveller through the fiery air available to
breathe in the African Sahara. A few kilometres into the unknown and mirages of
water pools seem to appear out of nowhere re-enacting centuries of legendary
illusions on the unwearied, as mirages of distant dwellers appear and quickly
disappear as the distance is breached through sheer will and an insatiable
desire to account for one of the world’s most inhospitable land mass. The clear
skies array’s scanty small light clouds speeding along in a hurry made obvious
by the fleeting shadows they momentarily cast on the desert floor, occasional
darts by heat shy reptiles across the blistering surface compounds the doubt in
the mind of the weary tourist.
The Sahara is no walk in the park, gruelling
thousands of miles without trees, then the mindboggling few are so scorched
they offer no respite to anyone in a prevailing scorching sandstorm that
changes direction at will shaping new and reshaping old observations, imposing
upon the traveller an illusionary landscape. This characteristic of the
prevailing windy storm renders the hope of an artist hopeless, for no sooner did
one note an observation that at the next gust it is altered. Distinguishing
dominant landscapes that aren’t susceptible to modern layering from
disappearing ones or rather the easily altered. Hostilities prevalent here
defies conditions essential for human existence, our camel’s grunts increased
with their burden of equipment taking its toll, inflicting pains in leg muscles
trekking slowly become unbearable, so our native guide suggest we pitch our
tent for the night. The howling of the wind increased bringing with harrowing
promises of ancient wraths,
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