DESERT WATER: (Problem: Would this water exist on Dune?)
Water seeks the lowest level available and on the desert these may be underground.
If you see hills, head toward them, for the likeliest place to find water is at their base.
Perhaps you have come across the thin shallow bed of a stream. Even though it is dry, water may lie beneath the surface. Hunt for a low place in the cut and dig.
The same procedure applies in the case of a dry lake bottoms. The presence of any water will soon be indicated by damp sand.
Game trails in desert country usually lead to water. Follow them downhill if the land so slopes that you can do this with certainty.
Otherwise scout around till you can MAKE SURE in which direction the paths have become more frequented and this will be the way to go.
If you happen upon a palm,
you can depend on water being at hand generally within several feet of
the base of the tree. Reed grass is also a sound sign that
moisture is near.
However in general it is
futile to search water near desert plants, for this one has already taken
it, so use the plant itself from its roots which you dig, pull and
section off. As seen above.* As for the cactus you cut off the head.
In the Arizona desert there is a cactus in a bottle shape which contains near 7 quarts of water but only in Arizona.
But with a good knife it will take you some 40 minutes of hard work to cut the very tough and prickly skin.
The water is in the plant not in the soil. The only danger comes from milky sap as seen from cactus in African desert, yet the Barrel cactus is the milky exception.
DEW: -- Problem: Would there be dew on Dune?
Which settles after cold
nights in many stretches of deserts has also been a life saver. Survivors
have mopped it up from the metal of their wrecked plane or collected
DEW MUST BE COLLECTED BEFORE THE SUNRISE, FOR IT EVAPORATES FAST.
An abundant dew can give
a little more than 1 litre of water/hour. Thirsty Bedouins sometimes dig
up cool stones just before sunrise and wait till dew settles on them,
then lick it up.
In many desert regions according to Israeli scientist Shmuel Duvdevani dew falls in a quantity which would amount to 25 inches in a year.
During the war one of the strangest source of water were the wreck of burned out or shot up jeeps and tanks and trucks.
Airmen after crash walked 20 miles a day filling up their water bottles regularly from the radiator of such vehicles.
BEDOUINS WATER EXPERTS:
Survival experts have taken great interest in the methods of the Bedouins with their amazing sixth sense which again and again leads them to sources of water.
Morning and evenings for instance they listen to the twittering of birds to locate where the birds get their drink.
They also find water holes by watching the direction in which the birds are flying or by following animals trails.
Flock of birds circling over one spot unless vultures usually indicate a drinking place in the desert.
Of course the water there is not ALWAYS pure said a survivor who found such a water hole, there was such a stench of shit that he was almost sick.
But his thirst was greater than his disgust, he has no iodine to disinfect water nor anything to make a fire with and boil it, but he drank it and was none the worse.
I should point out, that
one should have dug a hole near by (9 FEET) and let the water seep through
thus safer in some ways. 9 FEET would also get rid of water
contaminated by radiation.
Dense clouds of flies swarming
over a place in the desert show Bedouins where there was water only a short
while before and they ALMOST ALWAYS FIND
IT WORTH DIGGING THERE.
Bedouins also have discovered fairly large supplies of water either on the edge of a desert very near salt lakes or in the middle of deep dune valleys.
The rain water collects there, seeps into the ground and settles between different layers of soil.
If while digging they hit
upon wet sand with a dry layer underneath it, that is a sign that the water
here has already drained off farther downhill or evaporated in which
case they start digging again in a lower lying spot.
ALMOST EVERY DESERT HAS WADIS, WHERE SOMETIMES WATER IS STILL FOUND ONLY A FEW FEET UNDER A SURFACE WHICH IS APPARENTLY BONE DRY. Problem: Would this be true on Dune?
Of course there is often
no more than a layer of mud left, but thirsty people have pressed it into
a cloth and drunk the water unharmed. Those who died from it never
told their stories.
They however dig a small
hole in the mud, stick a suction pipe into it, then suck the moisture out
of the ground drop by drop, a grass filter stops any sand getting into
the bottom of the pipe.
Water not needed at once is stored in blown-out ostrich eggs in which quite a large amount of liquid can be carried.
If water taste very soapy or salty it may be poisonous, In the GOBI desert for instance there are springs which contain alkali.
In Arizona several springs contain arsenic and a spring in Sahara contains so much chlorine that it corrodes clothes.
DESERT WATER PART 2:
1) Where you see damp soil, dig in surface.
2) One can find water just under the surface of a dry river. The water goes down at the lowest point of the river bed, in the exterior part of the elbow of its bed.
Digging under the concave
bank of the exterior side of the river curve is the place whereas the convex
side is nil. Photo* Help the water to flow by digging small
3) Often desert people know many sheet of water which emerge from the bottom of lower land, they cover them up and hide them in many ways.
To discover them, look under slope or bank or hidden corners most particularly in semi-arid regions.
4) Look behind rocks, in trench and small ditches, on the flank of canyon or under the sharp edge of cliff and maybe you will find natural reservoirs.
Often in those places, the soil is made of solid rock or very hard soil well packed that collects water.
If you can't find those clues search water where the animals leave their traces.
5) In desert REMEMBER to observe the flight of birds particularly at dawn and dusk.
The birds glide and hover
around these marshes. * #La grousse des sables de l'Asie, l'allouette huppee,
l'oiseau zebre# * go there every day, parrots and pigeons
are rarely very far from it.
6) In the GOBI desert, don't count on plants to quench your thirst. In the SAHARA, the Wild Gourd or Pumpkin* can quench thirst.
The pulp of the Barrel Cactus
in USA is safe and will give 1 litre of milky fluid. (This is the exception
to the milky rule) but it is tough to get to it, with a good
knife you cut the upper part, you use this cactus as last resort.*
7) The roots of certain desert plants are fond very near the surface soil. The Australian Water tree*, the Desert Oak* and the Blood Wood* are examples.
Remove these roots and cut them or better break them in length of 60-100cm. Remove the skin & suck the water contained in it.
8) The Madagascar Travelling
Tree* #Le Magnolier parasol# of Western Africa * and the Australian and
African Baobab* are among the plants capable of
Don't attach too much importance about stories of contaminated wells. The acid taste of certain salty or alkaline waters rich in magnesium are the cause.
Desert waters by the nature
of their surge are generally better filtered and clear than your city water.
Yet better boil that water or add Iodine or Halazone pills
especially in native villages or near habituated places.