WELL ON THE FRONTIER OF DARFUR
CHAPTER XIX
ENTERING THE SUDAN
I GOT up early in order to open the film-box and refill the cameras while it was still cool. At seven, with Mohammed and Hamad, I set out to visit the well. The valley of Erdi is what is known as a karkur, a long narrow depression in the hills which winds like a snake. It runs to the southward for seven or eight kilometers ending in a cul-de-sac where the well lies in a shadowy hollow under the rocks. The pool is semicircular in shape, half a dozen meters long and half as broad. The well is like those at Ouenat, although I suspect that in addition to the rain-water it may possibly be fed by a spring. The approach to it is a rocky and somewhat dangerous climb. The night before one of the camels bringing water slipped and hurt itself rather badly.
We climbed up to the ain, had a rest and tea, and rode home under a hot sun. The valley is beautiful, with its sheer walls of red rock, and the green grass and trees scattered about below them. Mohammed told me that it is the most difficult valley in this region to enter and therefore the easiest to defend.
In the late afternoon I climbed the valley wall to watch the fine sunset and the play of the light on the red sand and the rose-colored rocks. The men shaved their heads, trimmed their beards, and washed and mended their clothes, which were becoming very tattered.
The grazing here just saved our camels, and it was wise to take this day for rest and recuperation. Mohammed and Herri told me that from now on it would not be practicable to travel at night. The country was too hilly to be safe to traverse in the darkness. All the Bedouins gave Mohammed credit for the way he led the camels over the steep rocks to the valley yesterday.
In the evening the dog had a fit of barking, and we suspected that some one was near. We quickly put out the fires, gathered the camels together, made ready the rifles, and put sentries out around the camp; but it was a false alarm.