15 Mar Chad: I.- The Eden of the Sahara. Lake Chad

I have already decided what my trip will be this summer before I go to Norfolk, if I go... I'm going back to Chad (I've already told you that I lived there...?), I want to go through the Tibesti, the most incredible place in the world, no doubt. I am looking for volunteers to join me in this adventure.

So I'm going to announce the call in the style of Shackleton, one of my favourite heroes:

"Men/women (more of the latter) wanted for dangerous journey. High price, intense heat, long days of discomfort, many hardships, little food, no sex, lots of bugs, constant danger, and a fair chance of returning alive (the latter is for encouragement)".

Even so, the trip will be worth it, believe me.

 I'll start by showing you Lake Chad, which you have to see before it disappears, because with climate change it is in serious danger and it is estimated that it will dry up in about 20 years. Unless the Bardems take action and call a "mani" to solve it, of course...

It was discovered by Clapperton and Denham in 1823, who christened it Lake Waterloo, although without much success as nobody calls it that. At the time it was thought to be the source of the Niger River, but in fact the only watercourse that feeds the lake is the Chari River, which flows through the capital Ndjamena.

The inhabitants of the islands and shores of the lake are the Boudoumi, who, according to Jules Verne in "Five weeks in a balloon", were very fierce pirates. I don't know, either their customs have relaxed a bit or I'm just unconscious and can't quite identify the danger.

The Fulani also live in the immediate vicinity. As Chad is shallow, it is common to see them crossing parts of the lake with their floating horn baits.

Here are a few pictures of the Fulani, because a picture is worth a thousand words and that's how I was speechless when I was in Lake Chad for the first time.

And just for the foolishness of being able to say that I had bathed in Lake Chad, among hippos (although you can't see them in the photo) and the fearsome capitane fish (whose bites don't even spare the hippos), I took a dip. It might seem reckless, but in my profession, fear is not an option, you know, and here is the proof:

I am aware that with this photo a myth falls down, but I didn't know how to retouch in the pobrepoint this debris body that I seem to have.

And as I don't want to leave you with this image for today, I'll leave you with one of those appearances that knocked me out for the whole day until I had a gin and tonic at the "carnivore" in Ndjamena.

This is much better, isn't it?

Well, I'll leave you for today, next day we'll fly to the border with Darfur and from there we'll go up to the Ennedi, in the north. You will love it, I know you will.