Kalahari Desert


Period: April 1996

The Kalahari desert is twice as big As Italy and speeded between Namibia and Botswana in the austral hemisphere on the south of Africa. This desert is the home of the Bushmen's who are the only population able to survive in one of the driest region of the earth. Thanks to a very short rain season, which makes it a bush desert populated by numerous animals: from the venomous insects, deadly snakes, gazelles, ostrich, lions and hyenas. Every encounter is possible and may become dangerous.
Carla decides to try the crossing by feet and solo: The purpose of it is to verifying if a person who was not borne in the desert would be able to adapt and live like the populations there.
She was able to get accepted from a small Bushmen's community, which in a few days period teach her the basic knowledge of the surviving in extreme conditions. It was an experience that changed her life and that left in the deep of the explorer soul a strong trace.
"Take from the Kalahari only what you need to live. Respect every animal that you will encounter and you will see that you will be respected back…. It will be a very hard challenge but the Bushmen's will always guide you with their thought and will help you. The Kalahari is not your enemy: accepted for what it is".
On April the 11th she left the small Bushmen's village with the hunter and bushman Kase, and began the crossing from a small town by Charles Hill in Botswana called Mamuno only with a backpack weighting 18 kilograms. She only carries seven litters of water and a hand full of gazelle dry meat called biltong used by the Bushmen's during their hunting trips. For the entire duration of the challenge she will have to feed only on what she finds in the desert, without using any kind of energy food. It would be the duty of Kase her walking partner to show her what is edible and where to find the water.
In her back pack she carries: tend and sleeping bag, a first aid kit which include a manual venom pump, a radio, a GPS, a night vision, a photo camera and a small video camera. She walks in the southeast direction for 350 kilometres in 15 days feeding only of berries, nuts and resin. The radio contact with the base camp, which is guided as always from her husband, which is situated, several miles away with two off road vehicles got interrupted after 10 days caused by the low radio battery.
The temperature goes from 40 degreases in the day to 5 degreases at night. Every night Carla find shelter in the ultra light tend builded especially for the challenge while Kase sleeps cuddle up by the fire that keep lit all night to keep the animals away.
Walking in the day is exhausting: they march between bushes covered with thorns and tall dry grass that hides all sort of danger especially snakes and scorpions that make their homes in the grass.
The climate is more humid respect to the other deserts and Carla is constantly wet with sweat that consumes her skin. During the hottest hours they are forced to stop and find shelter under some spiny acacia tree to don't lose to many fluids. The water supply is almost empty and the thirst drama begins. Even the ostrich egg shells that Kase use as water containers are empty and there is no sign of water.
…"I was able to control hunger, fatigue and pain, but I can't find the way to control Thirst…. My thong became thick and swelled, it seamed to have sand paper in my mouth and I try to make some drop of saliva but is useless." I keep telling myself out loud that the real champion is the one who know how to lose and decide that if wouldn't find the water the next morning I would quit".
Almost as a miracle, the next day they arrive in a small village where they could refill their water supply. For Carla is the signal that the desert is not her enemy but want to help her to continue, just As the Bushmen's told her. The also doesn't have any problems with the animals:"respect them and you will be respected". Two days from the end of the challenge, Kase leave her and goes back to his village: They are going out of the bushmen's territory and Kase who is shy and reserved doesn't want to be around foreign. She's alone and without the radio contact. On April 25 Carla arrives in Lehututu the place that was establish for the encounter with the support team and the end of the challenge…She's exhausted and lost five kilograms but she successfully completed her challenge. Her husband Oscar gave her a water canteen and while she was drinking it pour the water all over her face and on the Tuareg turban: The nightmare of the thirst was over.