A TRANS-SAHARA TREK.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17756, 7 May 1923, Page 5

A TRANS-SAHARA TREK.

THE GREAT BILMA CARAVAN.

It is two hundred miles from the ruins of the old Tuareg village of Ta'bello to Fachi, another hundred to Bilma, this, with -the return journey, malting bix hundred miles of desert,' where fresh water supplies are only to be found at the oases above named, wrote the Correspondent of the "Morning Post" with the Buchanan-Rodd Trans-Sahara Expedition last month. At Tabello we found, as we expected, the rendezvous of the Great Bilma caravan, the Taralum, and having selecteed a spot to camp on we unloaded o ur camels by the fringe of the crowd, andthereafter became a unit of it. Upon enquiry we learri that between 4000 and 5000 camels have already arrived. Wherever one turns one sees the remarkable spectacle of this mighty concourse of animals. And not only are their numbers great; they are the pick of the camels in the whole land, for it is recognised by all that only the finest and strongest animals are fit to make the long, hard journey over foodless wastes o.f desert sand. Seven thousand animals were totalled on tKe eve of departure: one of the largest caravans of camels that it is possible to see in modern times.

Meantime thorough military precautions were taken to. protect the caravan. A strong force of the Camel Corps of the terrritory had come up from Agades to escort the caravan across the desert, while further forces were located within touch of Tabello.at stategic points.

A Thirteen-mile Train,

The days of preparation being completed, at last we were off. The great journey had begun. By forced marches Fachi, first in our path, was to be reached on tho sixth day. The Taralum travelled a distance of 38 to 40 miloa a day; 14 to 18 hours of steady unhalting travel, in the saddle or on top of loads, or on foot, ankle-deep in sand, when weary of riding. They were long monotonous days. On tho open desert the Taralum was a wonderful sight. The space that 7000 camels can occupy is almost past belief. Engaged in taking cinema pictures of the caravan as near the centre of the column as we could judge, we viewed neither the head of the caravan nor the tail. East and west as far as eye could see diminished vanishing lines, like swarms of black flies, met the horizon. We calculated that if the whole caravan travelled as one single line it would extend over thirteen miles. However, in the open desert they trailed out considerably, and got together _ into straggling groups of four to six abreast, so that we concluded that the column, which looked like a veritable army, was 6ix to Feven miles in length.

The night camps on the desert will not easily be forgotten. Sunset, dusk, darkness: then an hour or two of patient plodding, one dark column following another, each trying to keep in touch with the next shadowy mass in front. Soon we are in camp, and all are busv getting loads off, beus down, and fighting a tiny fire with a few sticks from our precious store of firewood. Tea and a ravenou3 meal of sorts of ten minutes' cooking, and we are ready to look round our camels and see them fed. They are ravenous and have to he given a little at a time, but the bale of harsh, dry hay which is their ration disappears as quickly as our own repast.

The Desert Guide'. Efali, the veteran guide of the caravan, was responsible for the way across the blank, uncharted wastes, and from* time to time we know that ho is travelling true by old signs that lie across our path of the passing of caravans in years gone by—minute signs such as a. pellet of camel dung, a strand of fray- | ed and crumbling rope, or a tiny piece i of cloth; or more substantial evidence, f sucli as the bleached bones of camels. One cannot close without reference to I tie Btrain'of this journey. Haas iaen s

eyes suffered from the constant glare of sun and sand, and one. sees cotton, gowns drawn closely about the faces of those that -are troubled, and' heads droop lower and lower as the dazzling light grows powerful,' and eventually they doze and 6©em on the point of failing from their saddles. I hav© neyer seen. mem so done up as our natives on the evening of the fifth day—toward the end of the first long spell, when probably the hardest strain was felt. The homeward journey waa more of less a repetition of the outward one. Nearly everyone limped when walking, on account of great dry cracks that had opened in the' toes and soles of sandalled feet through days of travelling on the' hofcj" cutting sand. Some camels died on the outward' journey, l>ut many more on the way back; how many one can only surmise, hut no less than forty were reported to hav© fallen out during the third last day, to b© left to die on the friendless desert.

After twenty-seven daya oti the deeerb tho caravan onoo again sighted the foothills of Air, and it waa akin to sighting land after a long voyage atEea.