16 Mar Murzuq butter

Quarantine day 2

Boredom is killing me and driving me to do unsuspected things. Today I surprised myself by watching a rerun of Dirty Dancing, and I even got excited....second day and I'm already hitting rock bottom.

So I'd better revisit some of my days in the land of mirages, a dangerous place from which you never fully return. Today I am going to take you through an inaccessible place, full of sandy seas, oases, mysteries and much, much danger. After a thousand obstacles you will find the prize, soft, uniform, immense dunes, unique in the world. The Tubus and Tuareg of southern Libya call this sea of dunes the butter of Murzuq, and claim that there is no other place like it in the world.

At the foot of the Ottoman castle of Murzuq, the capital of the Tubus, the explorers Hugh Clapperton and Oudney lived before leaving for Lake Chad. They also spoke of that sea of dunes.

It's still quite dangerous to go near those places, so I haven't and wouldn't do it again....