Thursday, April 19. Start at 1:45 P.M., halt at 7:15 P.M. Make 24 kilometers. Highest temperature 32°, lowest 11°. Fair and clear, with few white clouds. Southeast breeze which drops at midday. After leaving Hatiet El Houesh we enter into a serira again, flat expanse of hard sand covered with fine gravel. East of the hatia is a chain of sand hillocks covered with dark brown stones; to the west is another similar chain about 4 kilometers away.
At 2:15 we pass the end of the Hatiet El Houesh. The hatia is about 2 kilometers broad. At 3:45 there is a gara on our left about 2 kilometers away, and at 5 another gara 4 kilometers distant on our right. At 6:30 the sand is softer, with patches of red and black stones. The surface is undulating.
We were delayed in starting through waiting for the two camels which had been left behind, and used the time in collecting hatab. It was very warm, and the camels grew tired quickly because of the heat. The country was similar to that between Buttafal and Zieghen. With my new hejin I found it easy to fall behind to take observations without exciting suspicion. We had to camp early because of the condition of the camels.
Friday, April 20. Start at 2 A.M.; halt at 9:30 A.M. Start again at 3:30 P.M. and final halt at 8 P.M., make 48 kilometers. Highest temperature 32°, lowest 10° at 12:30 A.M. Fine and clear, with cold southeast wind in the early morning. It drops at midday and gets up again at 4. In the evening it shifts to northeast.
At 4 A.M. passing through undulating country strewn with stone. At 6 enter serira again, flatter. Sunrise is at 5:30. Immediately thereafter on our right and left are low sand-hills from 8 to 10 kilometers distant. See a swallow in the morning and a hawk in the afternoon. At 4:20 cross low sand-dunes and sight a black gara, a long low mound, 10 degrees south of southeast.
This was the worst part of the journey for traveling, so far as temperature conditions were concerned. In the middle of the day it was too hot to march, and at night it was too cold. So we broke the trek into two parts, starting soon after midnight, and resting in the heat of the day. We had trouble with the baggage because of the difficulty of good packing and loading in the dark. The camels, however, went better on this day.
This was the fourth day of the lunar month. The Bedouins observe the weather conditions on that day, believing that the weather for the rest of the month will be the same. It was to prove true in this case.
Saturday, April 21. We started at 2:30 A.M. At six in the morning we came across stony and hilly country, which lasted for 12 kilometers. We passed on our left the gara called Garet Kudi. At nine we entered again into serira, with distant sand-dunes on the right and left.
One camel fell ill shortly after our start and refused to go even when its load was taken off. Two Bedouins were left behind to bleed it, but all efforts at cure were in vain, and it had to be slaughtered. I forbade the Bedouins to eat its flesh. Later, after the midday halt, two Tebus dumped the loads from their camels and went back to dry the flesh and leave it until their return from Ouenat. They were to catch us later. This all delayed us about an hour.
The men had little sleep the previous night and were very tired after sunrise. But it was chiefly the intense heat from noon to four o’clock that exhausted both men and camels. It was a very tired caravan that started again at 4.30 P.M. and moved slowly along.