A desert is only a place where you have to be reasonably prudent about your water supply. A camel is really a more natural object than a motor car.
-High Tartary, Owen Lattimore, 1930
More natural indeed than a motor car. I remember approaching Dongola and being so eager for fresh bread and a shower that I flagged down a lorry and told KhairAllah I’d meet up with him next day in the market, and then spending half the night with a flat tire far from town, arriving just in time for the bakery’s late shift but missing everything else I’d promised myself.