Lost... in the Desert of Dread

by Tracey Turner

  If you decide to head for the building, click here.

  If you decide to shelter amongst the rocks, click here.

  Click here to find out more about finding shelter in the desert.

  Shelter in the Desert

  • When you’re sheltering in the daytime in the desert, your first priority is shade. You can find natural shade in rocky areas, and you might even find deserted buildings. You could also use a bush for shelter with a blanket (or other covering) thrown over it.

  • Shelters below-ground can reduce the desert heat considerably, but first consider the amount of effort needed, and whether it’s worth it. If it’s already hot, don’t bother digging a shelter as you’ll use up too much water by sweating.

  • If it’s not too hot yet, you could try digging a trench about 50 centimetres deep and long and wide enough for you to lie down in comfortably. Pile earth or sand from your trench around three sides, leaving the fourth side open for you to enter and exit the shelter. Secure your blanket or other covering over the top. Ideally, the outer covering should be white to reflect the heat, and you should have a second layer underneath it, with an air pocket in between.

  • If you’re sheltering at night in the desert, you need to keep as warm as possible – make sure there’s something underneath you and don’t lie on the cold ground. Don’t make your shelter in a valley bottom, which will be especially cold and prone to frost.

  • Wherever you’re sheltering in the desert, make sure it’s free from insects and reptiles that might give you a nasty bite or sting.

  • Always avoid areas that could flood in a sudden downpour, such as dry river beds – however unlikely it seems, flash floods do happen in deserts.

  Click here to return to your adventure.

  Deciding to carry on even though the temperature is above 30 degrees Celsius, and the sun is now burning any exposed skin on your body, was not a good idea. Even though you’ve been drinking lots of water, your body has been sweating heavily, getting rid of salt as a result.

  The very low salt levels in your body have led to hyponatraemia. Your body is unable to process water, making the cells in your body expand. As the cells in your brain expand, you feel dizzy and confused. It’s not long before you’re forced to lie down. You fall into a coma and die.

  The end.

  Click here to return to the beginning and try again.

  Click here to find out more about hyponatraemia.

  Hyponatraemia

  • We need salt to live. Hyponatraemia is a low level of salt in the blood.

  • It can be caused by drinking too much water (yes, even water can be bad for you) – for example if you’re working out at the gym and drinking lots but not replacing the salt that you’ve lost as you sweat, or if you lose a lot of body fluids (caused by severe diarrhoea or vomiting). Hyponatraemia can also be caused by kidney failure and heart failure, and some other conditions.

  • When salt is low, the body’s cells swell up with water. When brain cells swell it’s especially dangerous because the skull limits how much the brain can expand, causing it to press on the skull.

  • Symptoms of hyponatraemia include headache, confusion, tiredness, nausea, muscle spasms and seizures.

  • In severe cases, hyponatraemia can be fatal.

  Click here to return to your adventure.

  You gaze across the barren landscape and a smudge of green catches your eye. In the distance you can make out a clump of trees – that must mean water.

  You put on sunglasses, make a head covering out of a spare white shirt in your backpack, and set off. The bottles of water in your backpack are heavy and almost straight away your back is soaked through with sweat.

  Crossing the gravelly, dry plain towards the trees you are baking hot, but you’re convinced that finding water should be your top priority in the desert.

  Click here.

  Click here to find out how different plants and animals have adapted to life in the desert.

  Adapting for the Desert

  As a human being, you’re not particularly well equipped for desert survival. Desert plants and animals have adapted to cope with the hot, dry conditions . . .

  • Most desert animals are nocturnal, taking advantage of the cool of the night. They spend the hot days resting, many of them in underground burrows.

  • Some animals don’t need to drink water at all – they get the moisture they need from the plants or animals they eat. The addax, for example, a large Saharan antelope, gets water from sucking plants.

  • Many desert animals conserve water by not sweating, and only passing small amounts of concentrated urine.

  • Some animals cool down by peeing on their legs! Turkey vultures do this.

  • Because fat increases body heat, some animals have adapted by concentrating their body fat in one place, such as in a hump (like camels) or at the base of the animal’s tail (like some lizards).

  • Some desert plants store water in their roots, stems, leaves or fruit. The baobab tree, for example, stores water in its trunk – it gets fatter and thinner at different times of year, depending on how much water it’s storing.

  • Desert plants’ leaves might be glossy, to reflect the sun, and/or waxy, to keep in moisture.

  • Some desert plants have very long roots that reach down to underground water supplies. Others have shallow roots, taking advantage of surface water.

  Click here to return to your adventure.

  As you get to the pile of stones in the gloomy dusk light, you’re even more convinced that they have been placed there deliberately. You move them and, sure enough, they’re covering a water hole.

  You take some water in your cupped hands – it looks and smells clean. Should you bother to make a fire and boil it? It would be time-consuming, and it’s difficult to see what might have contaminated it.

  If you decide to make a fire and boil the water, click here.

  If you decide not to bother boiling the water and fill up your containers and carry on, click here.

  Click here for tips on how to make a fire in the desert.

  Making a Fire in the Desert

  • Dry desert conditions are perfect for making a fire. The main problem, especially here in the Sahara, is fuel. You need tinder (flammable material such as wood shavings), kindling (small twigs) and fuel (larger pieces of wood for when the fire is burning well). Gather any wood you see in the Sahara. If you can’t find any wood, you could try dried animal droppings!

  • Choose a sheltered spot for your fire, where the wind won’t blow it out, and make sure it’s not too near a tree or other plants that could catch fire. If the wind is very strong you might need to dig a trench to make your fire. Put a circle of rocks around it to conserve the heat and fuel.

  • Make a bed of tinder (this could be dry grass) and make a wigwam of kindling around it. Light the tinder with a match. Only start adding larger pieces of wood when the kindling is burning well.

  • Luckily you have some matches with you, but if you didn’t you would have to try creating a spark to light your tinder using friction. At its most basic this could be rubbing two sticks together, but a fire plough is a more sophisticated method: cut a groove in a flat piece of wood, then rub a sharpened stick up and down it (the stick will need to be harder wood than the flat piece). This will create shavings that act as tinder, which will catch alight from a spark.

  • During the day, you could ignite kindling by directing the sun’s rays through a lens or the bottom of a glass bottle.

  Click here to return to your adventure.

  You sit down in a small patch of shade and scan the landscape for somewhere to rest. You take a drink, and rummage at the bottom of your backpack for a sachet of salt, which you sprinkle into the bottle – you’ve been sweating so much that you probably need it.

  In the distance you spot what looks like a small rectangular building – it might be a good place to rest for the day. As the sun beats down, you ca
n see that it was foolish to try and walk in the desert during the day, when it’s burning hot. It’s much better to rest now, then set off in search of rescue when the temperature drops at dusk.

  Click here.

  It’s dark inside the small cave, soothing your eyes, which ache from the brightness of the sun. It’s cooler, too – you’ve got a much better chance of comfortable rest here. You move a few small rocks and pebbles, and put the blanket underneath you to make a soft bed.

  You hear scuttling. There are probably other animals in here that are sheltering from the heat too. Should you move from your comfortable position?

  If you decide to move, click here.

  If you decide to stay where you are, click here.

  The snake is a saw-scaled viper, one of the most venomous and aggressive snakes in Africa. This one was out hunting when you got too close. Its body looped into S shapes, the snake rubs its scales together, which makes a warning hissing noise. Because you haven’t backed off, it strikes, lightning fast.

  The snake has bitten your ankle. You stagger backwards, away from the snake, in agonising pain. The bite starts to swell. Soon you feel feverish and vomit. You need anti-venom and hospital care, but alone in the middle of the desert you’re not going to get it. The snake’s venom stops blood from clotting and leads to kidney failure.

  The end.

  Click here to return to the beginning and try again.

  Click here to find out more about saw-scaled vipers.

  Saw-scaled Viper

  • There are eight species of saw-scaled viper, which live north of the equator across Africa, Arabia, and southwestern Asia, including India and Sri Lanka.

  • They’re between about 30 centimetres and one metre long, with a thick body, and can be brown, grey or orange with darker spots and blotches. They have serrated scales, which make the hissing noise you heard. They use it as a warning, like a rattlesnake’s rattle.

  • The snakes are nocturnal, feeding on small mammals, birds, lizards, scorpions and other invertebrates.

  • Saw-scaled vipers are extremely aggressive, and their venom is very powerful.

  • There are snakes with more powerful venom, but where saw-scaled vipers are found, they’re responsible for more human deaths than all other snakes in the region put together.

  • The snakes cause thousands of deaths per year – as well as unpopulated areas of the Sahara, they also live in close proximity to people.

  Click here to return to your adventure.

  You set off again. It’s chilly, and you’re glad of the blanket around your shoulders.

  You spot a movement from the corner of your eye: there are some rocks just beside you, and you thought you saw something climbing them. You investigate . . . and come face to face with a gorgeous, fluffy cat. It has big ears and a very cute face and it’s looking at you in surprise.

  You’re not sure if it’s some kind of wild desert cat, or whether it’s a domestic cat – in which case there must be people nearby. Should you stroke it, and let it lead you to where it lives?

  If you decide to approach the cat, click here.

  If you decide to leave it alone, click here.

  You’ve never felt so hot. Sweat drenches your clothes and trickles down the sides of your face as you walk. Something glints in the sunlight. To your horror, you see it’s the bleached bones of a large dead animal, its ribs pointing towards the sky.

  A shiver runs down your spine despite the extreme heat. You’re feeling a bit dizzy, too – maybe it’s the sight of the animal skeleton.

  Perhaps it’s time to admit defeat and find shelter from the sun, then walk at night instead.

  If you decide to seek shelter, click here.

  If you decide to keep going, click here.

  The sun is beginning to slip below the horizon, so you can now work out which way is north, south, east and west. You are sure you don’t want to go north – when you set off for your desert trek you were at the southern edge of the desert. You reckon the direction you should take is south or southwest of where you are now.

  You point the number twelve on your watch face in the direction of the sun . . . which way should you go?

  If you decide to follow the direction of the number 6, click here.

  If you decide to follow the number 9, click here.

  If you decide to follow the number 10, click here.

  Click here for tips on how to use a watch as a compass.

  Using a Watch as a Compass

  Even if the sun isn’t conveniently setting or rising, you can work out which way is north, south, east and west using a watch with hands.

  • With the watch in the palm of your hand, point the hour hand towards the sun (but don’t look at the sun or you could damage your eyes).

  • In the northern hemisphere, the sun is due south at midday. That means you can work out which way is south by dividing the angle between the hour hand (which is the position of the sun now) and the twelve on the watch face. So if it was two o’clock in the afternoon, the one on the watch face would point south.

  • If you only have a digital watch, just draw a clock face in the sand with the hour hand pointing at the sun.

  • If you don’t know what the time is, stand a stick in the sand and measure its shadow at different times of day. In the northern hemisphere, the shortest shadow will point north.

  • At night, you can find north if you know which star is Polaris, the North Star.

  Click here to return to your adventure.

  You pause for a moment, a bit puffed out, and look back to a rock next to a withered tree you noticed just after you set off. It’s a long way away now – you’ve covered a lot of ground.

  Even though the night is cold, you’re very warm, tired from carrying your heavy backpack, and sweating. Maybe you should slow down?

  If you decide to slow down click here.

  If you carry on jogging and walking, click here.

  It’s dusk, and the temperature’s already dropping dramatically. The sun’s slipping over the horizon quickly – the twilight doesn’t last for long this close to the equator. You get up and shake out your blanket. Soon it will be cold enough to wrap it around you as you walk.

  Not far away from you there’s a wadi – a dry river bed. There’s a pile of stones in it, and the stones look as though they might have been deliberately placed on top of one another. Should you go and find out what it is, or is it better to make a decision about which direction you need to head in, before you do anything else?

  If you decide to work out your direction first, click here.

  If you decide to investigate the stones in the wadi, click here.

  As you get closer to the high ground, you realise there are more hyenas than you thought – they seem to be everywhere. They’re bigger than you thought, too. Still, you reason, hyenas are cowardly scavengers. And anyway, who could be frightened of an animal that laughs?

  You should be frightened, though, because hyenas are dangerous animals that have been known to attack and kill people. A few of them lope towards you, spreading out to your right and left. You’re worried now – but it’s too late. Two of the hyenas run at you and attack. At least it’s all over pretty quickly.

  The end.

  Click here to return to the beginning and try again.

  Click here to find out more about the spotted hyena.

  Spotted Hyenas

  • There are four types of hyena – brown, striped, aardwolf and spotted. Spotted hyenas are the largest species – they are huge, measuring up to about 1.5 metres long, and up to about 80 kilograms in weight! They live mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

  • They don’t just scavenge food – hyenas are skilled pack hunters that prey on animals as large as wildebeest.

  • Spotted hyenas make a variety of noises to communicate with one another, including their famous ‘laugh’.

  • They live together in large groups of up to about 100 animals. Female hyenas
, which are larger than males, lead the group.

  • Despite their appearance, hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs.

  • Hyenas’ jaws are extremely powerful – capable of crunching bones – and they can even digest teeth, so that nothing goes to waste.

  • Hyenas do attack and kill people, sometimes even dragging people from their beds at night.

  Click here to return to your adventure.

  You shelter at the base of the dune as the wind howls even louder and sand and grit whirl through the air in choking clouds. Soon it’s impossible to see anything in the swirling sandstorm. You cover up exposed skin because when the sandy wind touches your bare skin it feels like sandpaper.

  Unfortunately, you’ve picked the wrong place to shelter. Unless there’s thunder and lightning, when you could run the risk of a lightning strike, it’s better to head for higher ground in a sandstorm, because the sand, grit and dust is denser the lower down you are. And a sand dune was an especially bad place to pick – since it is made entirely of sand! Lorry loads of it are picked up and dumped down again, totally burying you underneath a thick, suffocating layer.