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How
are you going to get 11 people across
the Sahara Desert and back?
What if one of the vehicles breaks
down?
What will the team eat? How much will
they eat?
Where will the team sleep? What if
someone gets hurt? When planning an
expedition, these are just some of
the questions you need to answer. |
| Vehicles-
The team needs lightweight, maneuverable
vehicles to transport people and supplies
across the desert and to search for
fossils in rocky or sandy terrain. A
single large truck would be to slow
and would not allow team members to
conduct field operations in several
places simultaneously. |
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| The
team outfitted five Land Rover trucks.
Each vehicle has seats for passengers,
storage space for food and gear, a roof
rack for carrying additional equipment,
two spare tires, a box of spare parts,
and two dozen 20-liter containers (called
"jerry cans") for fuel and
water. |
| Food-
Consider the following: If
15 people ate 5 pounds of food each
day (they would be working hard) for
90 days, the total weight of food consumed
would be 6,750 pounds! |
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| This
weight, added to that of equipment and
supplies, would have exceeded the carrying
capacity of the vehicles. By taking
dehydrated food, the team was able to
cut total food weight down to 2,500
pounds. |
| Fresh
meat and vegetables are hard to find
in the desert. The team uses pasta and
rice as a food base with sauces and
stews made from dried meat, dried vegetables,
soup mixes, tomato powder and lots of
spices. They even bring dessert into
the desert; freeze-dried ice cream bars!
Granola with powdered milk and instant
oatmeal with dried fruit makes for a
healthy breakfast. For lunch, the teams
eats leftovers from the previous night.
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Camping Equipment- Each
team member has their own tent, sleeping
bag, and cot for the journey across
the desert. Personal gear also consists
of a small flashlight, pocket knife,
hat, sunglasses, backpack, and canteen.
The team packs large tents for work
at the field site; one to store field
equipment, one for study and work
on fossils, and one that will function
as the kitchen. Cooking takes place
on gas stoves because electricity
is not available. Camp lights run
on electricity from car batteries
that were recharged during the day
in the vehicles. |
| Medical
Supplies- Vehicle accidents
and injuries from tools are the two
most common emergencies in the field.
Because most of the expedition will
be spent more that 100 miles away from
the nearest hospital, a fully equipped
first-aid kit is kept on hand. It includes
cream and lotions for sun exposure,
pills for common ailments, antibiotics
for infection, and a complete set of
bandages. The medical kit even includes
equipment for blood transfusions and
a list of the blood type of each member.
If there was a serious emergency, the
team knows who has compatible blood
types. |
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