'In a minute,' Gregorius protested. 'First I want to show you where we
have to cross the sand desert-' He pointed at the map, tracing a route
and not realizing that he was talking to himself alone. Jake had left
him to interrupt the action at the fireside.
Vicky awoke in the first uncertain light of dawn to the realization
that the wind had dropped. It had whistled dismally all night, so that
now when she pulled back her blanket, it was thickly powdered with
golden grit and she could feel it stiff in her hair and crunchy between
her teeth. One of the men was snoring loudly, but they were three long
blanket-wrapped bundles close together, so she was not sure which of
them it was. She fetched her toilet bag, towel and a change of
underwear, then slipped out of the ' laager, climbed the slope of the
dune and ran down to the beach.
The dawn was absolutely still, the surface of the bay as smooth as a
sheet of pink satin as the glow of the hidden sun touched it. The
silence was the complete silence of the desert, unbroken by bird or
beast, wind or surf and the dismay she had felt the previous day
evaporated.
She stripped off her clothing and walked down the wet sand that the
tide had smoothed during the night and waded out into the pink waters,
sticking in her belly against the sudden chill of it, and gasping with
pleasure as she squatted suddenly neck deep and began to scrub her body
of the night's grit and dirt.
When she waded ashore, the sun was cresting the sweeping watery horizon
of the Gulf. The tone of light had altered drastically.
Already the soft hues of dawn were giving way to the harsher brilliance
of Africa to which she had become accustomed.
She dressed quickly, bundling her used underwear in the towel and
combing her wet hair as she climbed the dune.
At the crest, she halted abruptly with the comb still caught in the
tangle of her hair and she gasped again as she stared out into the
west.
As Gregorius had told them, the still cool air and the peculiar light
of the rising sun created a stage effect, foreshortening the hundred
miles of flat featureless desert and throwing up into the sky the sheer
massif of the highlands, so that it seemed she might stretch out her
hand and touch it.
It was dark purplish blue in the early light, but as Vicky watched in
awe, it changed colour like some gargantuan chameleon, becoming gilded
with bright sun colours and beginning at the same time to recede
swiftly, until it was a pale wraith that dissolved into the first
dancing heat mirages of the desert -day, and she felt the sultry puff
of the rising wind.
She roused herself and hurried down the dune into the laager.
Jake looked up from the pan of beans and bacon that was spluttering
over the fire and grinned at her.
'Five minutes for breakfast.' He spooned a mess of food into her
pannikin and offered it to her. 'I thought about night travel to avoid
the heat but the chances of smashing up the cars on rough going was too
great.' Vicky took the food and ate with high relish, pausing only to
