Your charger is still sitting on the kitchen counter. Your weekend bag is dusty from being retrieved from the back of a closet. And right now, you’re drinking a half-empty cup of coffee, staring blankly at your computer screen with three tabs open simultaneously: a weather forecast, a packing list, and a route map. You’re not thinking much about the desert at all, mainly because you’re focused on the tiny details. Like, whether it will get cool enough at night to warrant your sleeping bag. Or if your shoes will be warm enough. Or if you’ll understand what an hour of complete quiet feels like.
This is normally how desert trips start, with small issues that appear trivial until you are in the middle of the trip and can’t easily resolve them.
You Probably Overestimate Your Knowledge Of Hot Weather
The fact that you are prepared for the sun in the afternoon, however, may leave you over- or underdressed as the sun sets. In reality, desert travel does not simply involve high temperatures in the daytime. Instead, it involves drastic fluctuations in temperature, wind, dry air, and long periods of time exposed to harsh weather conditions.
While a t-shirt that felt perfect at noon may have been completely acceptable, by nightfall, it will probably seem like a very thin layer of protection. This matter is important because your discomfort builds slowly. Therefore, if you do not get a good night’s sleep, you will feel stiff when you wake up. If you did not stay hydrated throughout the day, you will most certainly experience some form of dehydration.
Packing Mistakes Add To Your Already-Long Days
Deserts are not especially forgiving of poor footwear, overloaded packs, or novelty gear. If your backpack strap rubs, it keeps rubbing. If your canteen is awkward to reach, you tend to drink less. If your bag is filled with things you thought might be useful, you feel the weight of them by lunchtime.
You notice this quickly on a five-day camel trek from M’hamid. The best packing decisions usually feel unremarkable in the moment. Closed shoes. Lip balm. Headgear that stays on in the wind. Fewer things, and lighter ones.
You Move At A Different Pace Than Usual
You’ve probably spent years checking, updating, running, and making decisions. Desert travel breaks that habit. Sometimes you’ll experience great stretches of time with absolutely nothing asking for your attention. Initially, this can feel peaceful. Eventually, however, it can begin to feel somewhat annoying.
Because it takes some time to adjust to true rest, give yourself room to adjust. Don’t try to view silence as something you need to fix. Allow the repetition of each day: walk, sit, drink water, watch where the sun moves across the sky. After a while, your mind generally gives up trying to outrun your surroundings.
Your Comfort Is Largely Based Upon Routine Rather Than Excitement
Most of the problems you will face in the desert are common problems that happen in a dramatic setting. Heat exhaustion. Fatigue. Hunger arrives later than expected. Poor sleep. When you take care of your body and energy needs as soon as possible (as opposed to letting them grow into emergencies), you fare much better.
Thus, it is reasonable to believe in a straightforward approach to your overall behavior and thought process: save your energy. Be prepared to eat before feeling hungry. Protect yourself from getting burned by the sun. Keep an eye on how you end each night. Your trip will benefit from your consistency in making these kinds of decisions each and every day, and they will be able to help give you some stability in your life as long as you don’t decide to do things with boldness or brashness.
