Algeria!
1 comment June 10th, 2008
Finally, I have a new plan – and my walk is happening again. Oh, thank god.
Niger is out. Finished, Kaput, do not pass go and collect your two hundred dollars OR one’s camels. But – as there always is – looks like I have found an alternative.
Algeria, which was politically not an option when I first began organising this walk, has become one now. Although it will mean missing a section of Northern Niger, I can begin my walk again from the Algeria/Niger border – at In Guezzam – and continue on into Libya and Egypt.
This discovery gave me a whole new lease on life. Although it still means missing Niger, I am not missing so much distance by doing it this way – not like when I was looking at starting directly into Libya. Even better, I feel the old enthusiasm take hold of me again when I think about walking in Algeria – unlike the sense of disappointment I felt when I thought I would just have to skip two thousand kilometres and walk only the tail end through Libya and Egypt. Now I look at the beautiful stretches in Algeria and feel gripped by excitement again – now this, I can do!
I am suddenly back headlong into visas and agencies, consuls and embassies, routes and budgets and – yes – more sponsorship. I am writing at a rate of knots to try to get the second book finished before I go back, and at this stage, I am booked to go on the first of September. One of these days I will get myself organised well in advance….
This will be a much different walk; the countries are far more strict regarding guides, and women walking alone, so I will need to have registered guides with me at all times. I don’t actually mind this anymore, since until a few weeks ago, I couldn’t see my way forward to walking at all! Now I am just dying to get out there and finish this thing, make it the rest of the way across the desert that I have been missing for the past twelve months.
I always wanted to walk in Algeria, so I am excited to get the chance to do so. Nothing is definite yet, and I know that there are endless hurdles yet to cross, but for me it is all back on again, in a way it hasn’t been since I left Niger, and I am thrilled. I am in the process of trying to track down Ibrahim, my old guide from Menaka, to see if he is prepared to take my camels for me up to the Algerian border. I would be just stoked if I could walk with my old camels and kit.
Meanwhile, life back here is plodding along. Sometimes the desert feels far away, when I am knee deep in writing, domestic existence, and speaking stuff. The writing is quite an escape sometimes, it puts me back in there, walking and dreaming. I need that. I miss it.
My book seems to be going well, and it is really lovely to receive so many enthusiastic and supportive emails from those who have read it. I love Mondays – my inbox is always full of messages from people who read the book over the weekend! I get a thrill from reading every one.
Alistair Humphreys, a guy who was cycling around the world at the same time I was walking, has just emailed to say he is planning a huge ski across the Antarctic. Google the guy – he is totally legit, and I reckon if anyone can make it work, he can. Love hearing about this kind of stuff.
I have several thousand kilometres left to walk, and finally it feels like it is going to happen. The relief is huge; I have barely dared think about my walk in the past few months, so worried I simply wouldn’t find a way to make it work. Of course, there are still financial concerns, but then there always are; that is just an obstacle to be overcome, not a dead end. Knowing I can actually go back gives me all the impetus I need to actually make it work.
I will update soon with all the details of when and where I am going. In the meantime, thankyou to all the kind people who comment and email; and a heartfelt SORRY to all of you who ask where the photographs are in the book, as everyone seems to. I promise the next one will be full of them; I was unable to access photos for this one, to my deep regret.
Cheers