Week of sand and a shower of ice bucket - Part 1

NOT the Paris-Dakar, but also EXTREME Kevin and Seann, Scotland finally came to an end, must be one of the most difficult stages of our journey. Seven long days from seven am to seven pm we crossed the distance from the city of Niamey, Niger, to the settlement N'Djamena, Chad. Our path lay along the Nigerian border, through remote towns and villages across the Sahara Desert - in Chad, along the dry lake Chad to N'Djamena. We drove through the desert without any road in deep sand. The car now and then bounced and shook. We felt as though we were locked in an iron pot and thoroughly shaken. And so every day from 7 am until the time when the evening, at sunset, we stopped for the night. For the whole we managed to not more than once to arrange a halt. It is clear that the running water to wash, there is nowhere, and after more than seven days on sorokagradusnoy heat in a cloud of sand that sifted through the window, we were happy even improvised soul of a bucket in N'Djamena. Landscape outside the window was simply wonderful: uninhabited desert areas, covered with reed huts that appeared out of nowhere, beautiful golden-yellow sand dunes, changing flat white salt lakes and clay-orange dunes. Here you have desert! Sand took bizarre forms, at the sight that takes your breath away. The desert is sometimes quite suddenly plunged into an oasis of greenery with palm trees swaying in the hot wind. Could go a very long time and did not meet a soul, when suddenly, from nowhere, appeared a man in bright clothing, walking somewhere in the desert. As we approach the next village started to fall on the eyes of the family on camels and men on horseback, dressed in wonderful clothes that should protect them from the all-pervading wind Harmatan (north-east winter monsoon blows from November to March from the Sahara to the west coast of Africa , approx. Perevi.). Local men are carrying swords, bows and arrows, and on his head they have peaked hats. Maybe it's faster and Crossing the border with Chad, it turned out, to our surprise, quite straightforward. The police in this country, as elsewhere in Africa, known for its corruption and constant attempts to get a bribe for every opportunity and uncomfortable about it. At the request of the police we have with passengers and helped one soldier to get to the next village. Then we were brought up five more police and military to a nearby town, which was located at a distance of 55 km. Our machine has become something of a basic means of transportation for local, as we were the first vehicles in this area for 6-7 days past. We decided that it may help us to avoid searches and bribes during a stop at police checkpoints and, thus, make our journey a little easier. Once this tactic worked, when in one small town police requested from us $ 16 per person for registration and some stamps in my passport, but our companions in time came to the rescue and solved the problem. Market in N'Djamena We had celebrated in every town through which we passed in Chad, and each time we were faced with the stereotype of African bureaucracy. Once we were detained for five hours, forcing some to fill the questionnaire and then a few hours we had to wait "a man who has the key to the box, which bears the stamp". Nevertheless, things could be much worse. Deadline for material: