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| THE DANGERS OF CROSSING A DESERT |
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| Monday, 22 March 2010 10:29 |
 During the 6 day long crossing of the driest desert on earth, competitors kept asking me “how do you feel?”. It sounded like a rather strange question to me. I couldn’t really answer it. I hadn’t crossed the driest desert before so I didn’t know how I should feel really.“What’s gonna be your strategy the following days?” was another frequently asked question. All I could possibly answer was: “Should I really have a strategy other than just ‘keep going’? Of course I was tired, hot, sleep deprived, thirsty, and most of all, always questioning what would be around the corner. But I felt alive and maybe even more alive than ever. As I said before, injuries had turned my preparation for this into a nightmare. But guess what? The constant hacking of my feet and blisters on that 250K was so dominant that not once did I ever feel any pain whatsoever in my actual knee injuries. I even believe that the long and intense, but well paced crossing had been a healing process in itself. Every single person who had to drop out of the race was like a knife going straight into my heart. I could perfectly imagine how hard they had been training and preparing for this challenge over the last six months. It reminded me that we were all exposed to extreme factors which could stop us in the blink of an eye.  On the trail, any form of living presence was an oasis of energy in the midst of a hostile environment. A dog running by, the 4 deserts cameraman, a photographer, the medical staff, or the many volunteers at the check points. They were all able to boost your morale within seconds. Thanks to all of them.Is taking part in a Crossing dangerous? It sure is! There is the danger of getting infected by a "virus" that will never ever leave your body again. Feeling small and vulnerable, feeling thankful for your drinking bottles to be refilled again, feeling thankful to find a chair at the campsite, feeling happy with that one more raisin in your expedition food pack. Those are feelings you probably will be chasing over and over again. hasta la proxima ! Bert
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