By NITIN GAIROLA
So I would like to take you on a brief journey through such magical, mysterious and magnificent places of mirages and miracles. I thought it would be appropriate to begin with Africa before I went to the other continents, since man’s evolutionary and later geographic journey started from Africa. It is from this cradle of mankind that he spread throughout the world, from around 200,000 years ago to this day.
The mysterious and medieval Morocco in the North-West of Africa is often times called the gateway to the Sahara which is the largest non-polar desert in the world. Adventures in the Sahara are the stuff of legends and Morocco is one of the most accessible ways to get a taste of the Sahara since other neighboring countries such as Algeria and Libya are not considered very stable presently. You can also enter from Egypt in the opposite North-East side of the continent but the distances from Cairo (the capital) to the desert proper are quite large. A big plus is that you have the surreal ‘White Desert’ in Egypt’s far west, which is actually a part of the Sahara. However, if you want to see the classic golden dunes of the Sahara, then Morocco is indeed your gateway.
I would not advise the countries to the immediate south of these since they are even less stable. These are South Sudan, Chad, Niger (which is different from Nigeria) and Mauritania. Please don’t mix the last one with Mauritius otherwise your dream honeymoon beach holiday may not turn out as imagined. On a serious note, while I have been to South Sudan, I would not advise anyone else to go there since that would be very irresponsible of me.
In Morocco you have the added benefit of seeing truly medieval towns and bazaars such as the one in Fez which has an old walled town contained within it. It really hasn’t changed much since the 9th century AD when it was formed. You will realize this when you walk through its narrow lanes and soak in the sights (some I don’t dare describe here), sounds and smells (of spices & perfumes). Then there is Marrakesh, very different from Fez and yet very similar in that it too is a time capsule into the past. The bazaars here take you back to the tales and times of Arabian Nights or any other image that you may carry of an adventure in the middle-east.
So while the mighty Sahara covers the north of the continent (from East to West) and all of USA can fit comfortably within it, to the south you have the smaller and older Namib and Kalahari deserts whereas in the East there are few others in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan.
In the Kalahari we saw prehistoric stone paintings made by the ancestors of the bush men. The bush men of today are the closest you will get to the people who actually roamed these places before man stepped out of his African home to explore the world. We had an amazing old man as our guide and he told us exaggerated stories of his walking these lands, encountering wildlife and living to tell the tale. However after my time here in this desert I too have a wild story of my own to tell. And it was not one bit planned when we started our day as we were picked up by Shepherd, our tour person and someone who became a good friend. We had gone to see some ancient ruins that were quite enchanting and then were on our way through the sands and tarmac of the Kalahari to our next point of interest.
In between however we were passing an area known for their ‘White Rhino’ (a species) numbers and Shepherd asked if we would like to see some. He knew the wildlife and anti-poaching officers in those parts and said it may be possible for us to photograph them. So we naturally thought that we would view them as we view all animals in the wild, which is from the safe confines of a vehicle. But as it turned out, we had to ‘walk’ a fair bit to ‘find’ these primordial horned beasts. So after walking for what felt like an eternity, the chap with a gun in front told us we may be drawing near.
He picked up some sand and gently let it slip through his fingers. This was to check the direction of the wind but why you may ask. Well, as I was told that rhinos have weak eyesight and to compensate for it, they have an extremely strong sense of both sound and smell. And if we were walking towards them in the direction of the wind, then our own smell would reach very easily. It didn’t help that I hadn’t taken a bath (it was a bit wild after all). So we took the route which was in the opposite direction of the wind and were safe as long as we didn’t make too many sounds. And honestly, when you are out of the jeep in the wild, you don’t make many sounds for your own dear life’s sake. I assure you, it comes quite naturally.
Then Richa hushed ‘there they are…’, and if I tell you I didn’t feel any fear, then know that I lied. There were 4 adults and 1 calf and they could now sense our presence but couldn’t quite figure out in which direction to charge as we stood behind some dried twigs. It was a good thing as you really don’t want 4 tanks coming at 50 kilometer per hour towards you. At that moment I remembered an old survival skill I had read in a ‘Tinkle’ comic as a school boy. It said that if a rhino charged at you, you should find the nearest hill or incline as you can’t outrun a rhino but due to their heavily armoured suits they get tired very fast when running uphill. I never, never in my wildest dreams could have thought that a Tinkle tip which I read as an 8 year old could ever become a consideration in my lifetime. And here I was, able to recall in vivid detail the image of that cartoon rhino with its horn ‘almost’ up the backside of a man running faster than Usain Bolt.
Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and has travelled the natural world more than almost any Indian ever. He has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet, and holds National Geographic conservation certifications. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well. More than anything else, he loves his Himalayan home.
