TUAREG SKETCHES
Another three images from our trip in the Libyan Sahara in 2009
We had slept under the stars in the desert, surrounded by ghost-like rock formations.
The two families travelling together on this adventure had mostly made comfortable, cozy nests with our sleeping bags and thin mattresses, with the girls close to the parents or together at a short distance, if they still wanted to talk into the night. (The sleeping bags were a luxury added to our camp only after a couple of days, because half of our luggage had been lost at the Tripoli airport and was brought to us only days later. In the first days, we had given the children the few sleeping bags that we had immediately available, while the parents used woollen blankets provided by our crew.)
Our two boys had embraced the sleeping tactics employed by our Tuareg crew of drivers, guide and cook.
They had taken up position off-wind, huddled against the large wheels of our Toyota Land Cruisers.
(No tents. Tents are only useful in bad weather or to protect against the worst of dust storms. When the air is clear, the minuscule tents we had, only created a claustrophobic atmosphere in which swirling dust enters through the tiniest of openings. Just getting off-wind was better.)
Blissful sleeping in the cool of the night, knowing that all around us at dawn, we would find the traces of all the little critters that come out at night.
And then you wake up to be greeted by a wonderful sunrise that has also already stirred life into our friendly guide Risa:

Later the same day, after a bit of driving and desert exploration, we had taken shelter from the afternoon sun in the shade of a few giant rocks.
As per usual, our cook was preparing an early dinner (goat's meat, hung to dry against the sunbeaten side of one of those giant rocks before being lightly grilled and seasoned; cucumber and tomato salad, sour milk, rice), while the rest of us slept or made small talk.
Risa would shuttle between his crew of Tuareg and ourselves.
He was always ready for a conversation about his people and how they had been reduced from the lords of the sahara, to minorities in all the different countries that had been created by random lines on the map.

And this one is probably one of my favourite images of three of our crew, amidst the rocks that they call home.
