In winter the camel is a marvelous animal, but in summer he cannot tolerate thirst, and thus every explorer of the Sahara becomes a slave to his own caravan.
-Mission Among the Touareg: My Two Saharan Itinerairies, October 1894-May 1895, Fernand Foureau (1850-1914)
Foureau’s charge from the French Colonial Office was to map a railroad route across the Sahara Desert. Chemin de Fer, Sikka al-Hadīd, Path of Iron. But KhairAllah might have said, Ride instead on the Chemin de Quarante, Darb al-Arba’īn, Way of the Forty, and you will arrive when you arrive, God Willing as a free man on a marvelous camel.