LIFESTYLE
Michael Benanav’s account of his 1,600km journey across the harshest regions of the Sahara is a gripping narrative of extreme travel.
A friend asked me what book I was reading. “It’s about a guy who travels for a month and a half with a camel caravan, through the Sahara Desert, in very harsh conditions,” I said. He shuddered. “I wouldn’t want to do that,” he said. Then, he continued, “But I’d like to read the book after you’re done.”
And isn’t that what extreme travel books are about? An excruciatingly difficult journey, an adventure that we wouldn’t dare to go on ourselves, chronicled by someone else so that we can live the thrill vicariously? The Caravan Of White Gold fits that category admirably, more so because of the interesting cultural background and historical significance of the journey.
The ‘white gold’ of the title is salt — rock salt to be precise. The best rock salt in Africa is mined in a place called Taoudenni, in the Sahara Desert, 800km from Timbuktu in Mali. For centuries now, the native folk have ridden caravans of camels on the journey from Timbuktu to Taoudenni to fetch this salt and sell it — once for enormous profits, but now for a pittance. The journey takes them through the harshest regions of the Sahara, testing their navigation skills and physical endurance.
Michael Benanav joined these caravans, living with the azalai — the native word for camel drivers — and completed the entire 1,600 km journey with them over six weeks. He refused to take along any aids that would give him an advantage: better clothes, GPS, phones or camping equipment. And he made it a point to lend a hand with all the day-to-day work on the caravans, refusing to be a guest. When there was a sandstorm, he was trapped in it, too, and when the caravan’s only bucket fell into a well, he faced the danger of going thirsty with everyone else. When he finally reached Taoudenni, he lived in the miners’ huts.
The resulting story makes for an amazing book. Benanav’s writing is crisp and he is willing to laugh at himself. He has an eye for detail, and the short historical notes now and then add much-required context. Most importantly, he does not judge the people he meets, but accepts them for what they are, saving the book from turning into ‘an American roughs it out’ type of story.
An interesting thread here is the encroachment of modern machinery into the ecosystem — several journalists have concluded that the camel caravan is under threat from trucks, which can carry larger loads of salt and travel faster. But as Benanav talks to more people, he finds the truth is more complex than that. It turns out that the trucks have filled an important gap in the salt miners’ lives, but haven’t taken the camels’ place. The story illustrates the running theme of balance achieved by tradition — how time and the evolution of customs create a society where every resource is used optimally.
One minor flaw with the Indian edition of the book, brought out by Jaico: There are hardly any photographs besides a few passport-sized black-and-white extracts. Considering the scenery that Benanav describes, it would have been worthwhile to include some good-size colour photos that he took on his journey. The American edition of this book had them, this edition (perhaps to reduce prices) doesn’t.
One hopes that Benanav makes many more such journeys, to many more places, and gives us readers the pleasure of travelling with him again.
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