Karoo Desert, South Africa

[JakeR]

I had an experience of a lifetime. I took my freind out on a three walk through the Sub-desert, with Food, clothing etc, for three days. On our backs.

On the second day we were in some trouble, we ran out of water. The distance to the next "well" (a bucket filled every week for emergencies) was 5 miles. This does not sound like much, but when you are walking through sand, with everything on your back and the BLISTERING sun beaming down on you, it is very, very tough.

There was one possible saviour, a river (duh!), but the parasites made it impossible to drink (bulhazia, and one more that i cant even pronounce that is resistant to hot water).

We finally arrived, my friend semi-with it.

This walk was arranged by the karoo national park, and every night you stop in a concrete "shelter" (it was actually just like an old bus-stop) which didnt bother me.

Now, one piece of advice. BEFORE YOU TREK, MAKE SURE THE MAP YOU ARE PROVIDED WITH IS ACCURATE!!!
The reason for our lack of water was the map scales, they were wrong, we predicted about 15 miles, it was in fact around 21, 22! :aargh4:

Jake

 

[bushwacker bob]

Its probably been mentioned before,but the most user friendly and acurate maps in the whole world are the ones produced by our very own ordenance survey.I have used maps in both Europe and north africa and they just dont compare to anything produced from the O.S. Sking maps of the alps even miss the odd mountain!