Waw An Namus. A travel in the middle of Sahara, Libya

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Waw An namus 1998-1999

"Given this, we have seen everything!" These are the only words that came out from the mouth, when, having reached the crest of the outer crater, we were ahead in all its majesty on "An Numus waw".

The volcano, was the destination of our journey but the journey had started from much further, from Shaba, where we granted a night in a hotel for as much as in the direction of dell'oasi Murzuk. Here at last we left the asphalt to go nell'omonima desert. There was little difficulty in overcoming the severe dunes of Murzuk !!!!!!. Two days of travel to reach Al Katrun, where we took a nice photo with a group of kids got on the chest of the Pik Up and where we should make full fuel and water to reach the namus, but as can happen in these shares ... ... .. "Diesel finished" was the response that has been given by the gas station.
The route traced on our maps, provided the South-East direction and then Al Wigh East namus direction, but it was unthinkable to the fuel rimastoci. The reserve in the tanks, but this was to allow a deviation towards tajra, a small community in the desert spersa to less than 100 km south to the Niger and so we did. Joints in the dusty square of the village are to expect the police to control the usual documents, the distributor and a large group of local and greet us.
Filled tanks and jerry cans are ready, we pay a few branches off to liters and liters of fuel and we rely on the march. We are joining a military that Pick Up is beyond us, he was a little later in panne, slow and offer our help. The driver thanked, but does not seem to be worried about touching the wire and some old Toyota awakens puffing will call into gear, there recovering, we find then, several kilometers further on near a step in the midst of cordons of barbed wire, where two guards very friendly, we opened a bad sort of barrier that delimits the military zone.
Continue a few kilometers and are on a hill on the last outpost, the soldiers greeted us, reciprocate with a tap of the horn.
D 'now we have not met anyone, we only we namus direction. The trail is sometimes hard, sometimes technical. Three days of travel very intense, unique sunsets, landscapes and a friendly encounter with a fennek. There is a plain in front of Fesh Fesh really difficult, which seems never to end, is a very fine sand, very similar to talcum powder. Here we must keep the highest possible speed in order not to sink.
And 'the dawn of the third day, the decisive one, now we reach the volcano, there is a quick breakfast and raise the curtains are going. Travel for some hours when we come upon a bank of fossil shells, thousands of years old, go by all means do two steps, taking advantage to stretch my legs my legs. There are thousands of shells, some very big, just little dig in the sand, to find perfectly preserved specimens. A witness of a life that flourished tens of thousands of years ago, here we see numerous pieces of fossil wood, petrified, and even tools of stone skilfully worked. Turning our gaze to 360 degrees do not see that sand and rocks, hard to imagine these endless valleys covered with water and vegetation, it seems truly incredible!
And the time running lose, we are to several tens of km from the goal, and already you can see rocks and boulders blacks such as coal, since it launched from the fury of the volcano. The closer we get, the more tangible signs of the ancient and powerful eruptions, about ten km sand suddenly changes its color from straw becomes black. We approach we start to climb again, we begin to perceive the odor of sulfur, the slope increases more and more, we arrive at the top and now appear in all its majesty, the waw An namus. We are on board which is about 30 meters wide in the shape of a ring with a diameter of about 5 km, at the exact center is another smaller cone, perhaps more recently, around some lakes, each a different color, surrounded by reeds and palm trees, all this in the middle of the Libyan Sahara, this, after having traveled for hundreds of kilometers in the desert, makes the show more amazing than ever, are not enough words or pictures shown, to describe the feeling that you try . Each of us live that moment in his own way, whoever sits down to contemplate the images that pass before the eyes who moves to enjoy a better angle. So we also do U.S. and ... ... ... surprise, the color of the lakes change with the change of perspective! FANTASTICO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We decide to walk down inside the volcano, the ridge is very steep then, slowly, it softens, we can not too close to the lakes because of the trust which, in the vicinity of these, it becomes melmoso. Even from here the glance is impressive, the black sand dunes inside the volcano, have been shaped by the wind so perfect, that seem to appear fake ... mountains of whipped cream ... in fact, seem giant meringues ... or waves a stormy sea ...
As I said, everyone is free to decipher the images that come to their own way, but we all agree on one thing "we have seen since this whole" ...

Claudio Coletta
Margherita Fenello
www.rollersadventures.com