This was a long and painful and in two respects a dangerous journey; first, if they were to lose their provision of water, as for several days none could be obtained; secondly, if a violent south wind should rise against them while they were travelling through the wide extent of deep sands, blowing the sand together in heaps and raising, as it were, the whole desert like a sea upon them…
-Plutarch, Life of Alexander, On His Crossing the Western Desert to Siwa Oasis
We ran out of water once and it led only to grumbling, nothing dangerous, and when the wind rose it only blew sand in our tea, nothing dangerous, so no, either Plutarch exaggerated the perils of the Western Desert or crossing from East to West as did Alexander is longer and more painful than it is from South to North, as did we.