Nearing the end

Saturday, April 1
10:12 pm
Acacus Camp, Libya

Though technically we will be here for another full night, this feels like our last night in Libya, and thus the trip. Crazy. We spend all day into night traveling tomorrow, first driving from the desert to Sabha (thankfully no hotel stay there...), then a night flight to Tripoli, then the first leg of our voyage home begins at 4am, if not sooner. There will be no sleeping tomorrow night in the cushy Corinthia bed. I'll never get up.

Today was spent on the road, again. Scenery was, for the most part, jaw dropping. Temperature, idly scorching. (The thermometer in the car read 42 degrees C. That's about 110 F.) We were traveling into the depths of the Acacus Mountain range to see some ancient rock paintings. We've been seeing these images on paper and reproduced in museums throughout the trip, so it was coming full circle to see them in situ. With the end of today, I officially retire my "archaeological shoes". Thanks, Onitsuka Tiger!







A part of me is sad, and maybe even not quite ready to be leaving. This past week in the camps has been really fun, and I've grown quite fond of the boys driving us silly folks around to these remote locations at the end of the world to look at rock scribbles. It's a familial atmosphere, still a boys club by all means, but they're good-natured kids doing the best and making the best of what they've got. (And given that they're all about my age, they're a welcome respite from the incessant talk of ailments, medication, and grandchildren among my group...) I'm going to miss them all, each one having such distinct personality traits. Salem and Abrahem were my homeboys to joke around with, Khalim's like the Libyan Justin Timberlake with a thousand-watt smile, Khalid's the wildchild, Abdullah and Mohammed have this quiet, dark intensity that melts when music plays, Awad is the reluctant leader of the pack. None of them spoke English, but we still managed to communicate in broken Arabinglish. My Arabic vocabulary is in the double digits now. Yala bina!


Some of the boys: Khalid, Awad, and Abrahem