THE AFRICA Virus

In northern Nigeria, the country was already dry savannah, but long before Agadez, we were in the desert. The rubber blocks on the suspension of Edwin’s bus, which prevent the suspension from slamming against the chassis, were broken. The track was, of course, again gravel and sand, and not one of the best, so the parts had to be replaced. As he carried the spares with him, we did it on the spot. After lifting the vehicle with a hydraulic jack, we put two stands under the rear. To improve the access, we had taken off the two back wheels. When we were both under the bus, the stand on my side suddenly tipped as it sank into the loose soil. I was lying on my left side, and the car settled on my chest. I could only breathe very shallowly and feared for my ribs. Sigrid, luckily, knew how the jack worked, and rescued me from the unpleasant situation. Somehow, we finished the replacement of the blocks.

There was a campsite, too – something we had not seen for weeks. The pool in it was the main attraction. It consisted of a large cement ring, which is often seen as a water reservoir in Africa. We did not worry about the water quality, but I have a memory of a rather turbid liquid. It was more important to us that it cooled us off a little. The camp was the meeting place for Saharan travellers, and we learned a lot about what awaited us in the north. Some of the cars were smeared up to the roof with sand! They had experienced a rare rainfall in the