Desert Nightmares

Kyle and Kelly bundle up for a chilly evening.

October 18, 1999
Web posted at: 12:57 p.m. EDT (1657 GMT)

By Dan Buettner

Imagine this: It's high noon and you're alone in one of the largest deserts on earth, standing atop a 30-foot tall dune. You slowly turn a full circle. On all sides, sand dunes the size of tall buildings roll to where the horizon touches the dome of the sky. The midday sun burns white-hot overhead. Its rays ricochet off the sand, stinging your eyes.

You bend down to pick up ball of sand the size of a pea. Crush the ball and a thousand tiny grains glint in your hand. You wonder: if a pea holds a thousand grains how many grains does the square meter under your feet hold? How many grains does this, the 192,000 square miles (320,000 square km) Taklamakan Desert hold? It makes your brain hurt.

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Grasp it and you begin to understand infinity.

Suddenly two horrifying thoughts occur to you: (1) While you were contemplating infinity and your team, their 15 camels and all the water have traveled out of sight and (2) you're thirsty. Yesterday, a camel kicked your teammate, Dave McClain. You were afraid for him. Did he break a leg? Will he go into shock? You put him to bed, wincing with pain. He couldn't get up all night. In fact, he had to pee in his drinking bottle. In the morning, you strapped him on a camel and sent him successfully to a road where he found a vehicle back to safety. He was lucky. But will you be?

Fear seizes you. You remember an article you read about dehydration. First your mouth dries and your lips crack; you are desperate for just a drop of water. When severe thirst sets in, polydipsia as it's called, your tongue thickens. Swallowing becomes impossible. As the thirst drives you mad you drink your own urine, even your own blood. The end is neither peaceful nor painless. You die a convulsing death and, even on a hot day, this can take six hours.

The Uighurs call the Taklamakan the "Desert of Death" and say if you go in, you won't come out. You now understand why. Since the desert looks the same in all directions and the sun is overhead, it's impossible to tell west from east, north from south. You stand on your dune squinting into the distance. Which way did the team go? "John!...Christina!!!" you holler for your teammates. You listen hard for a response. All you hear is the hiss of desert wind.

Fifteen camels carry the team and their food, equipment and fears on a four-day desert trek.

Today, the temperature will peak near 100° F (38° C) but you realize that it's probably not thirst that will kill you. Tonight, temperatures will plummet below freezing. You're wearing only shorts and a t-shirt. If you fail to find the team, how long will you last in the icy desert night before dying of exposure. Three hours? Four? It somehow seems insulting to die of the cold in the desert.

You remember your guide telling you not to move if you get lost in the desert, sit down and wait. Direction will come to you. So you sit down on top of your dune. Though you don't know if this is the end, you think about it. You think about all the things you'd still like to do in your life (like more Quests) and all the things you wish you wouldn't have done (like the time you teased your brother so bad about picking his nose that he threw a roller skate at you. It missed you but put a huge hole in your bedroom door. You tacked up a "Sonny and Cher" poster to cover it up.) You wish you would have been nicer to your brother and more honest with people. You wish you could make just one phone call. You wish you could call your mom to tell her you love her...and to apologize for what's under the Sonny and Cher poster. You stand up one last time to scan the horizon. There's not a tree, bush or living thing in any direction. You feel panic rising. Tears well up in your eyes.

Suddenly, a speck appears to your left. You swing around to look at it. It grows. Soon you can make it out. It's a camel's head! Then you see its body plodding along and shortly the other 14 camels of your caravan. You rejoice but then instantly feel a bit silly. The camel caravan is two dunes over, about 300 feet (100 m) away.

Dan Buettner