By Gabrielle Lyon and Expedition Team Members
Life in the field begins
before dawn and ends well after the sun
has set and the moon has risen. In the dark
of earliest morning before the breakfast
call, in the blinding heat of midday, and
most often, in the cool hours of the evening,
while someone ELSE is cooking, or after
dinner when camp work is done, we find time
to write in our journals.
The team journal excerpts
shared here offer another glimpse at life
during the expedition – and what it’s
like to leave it.
September 22,
Hotel Sahel, Niamey
-Carol Gudanowski
Whoa, I'm just trying to take it all in.
The second we walked off the plane we were
hit with this intense heat. The airport
was small and sticky, and everyone was looking
at us funny. It was good to see a familiar
face – Paul’s - after passing
through customs.
While we settled into
the hotel, I watched this gorgeous blue
bird dive down from a tree and swipe at
hundreds of grasshoppers leaping in the
bushes. We're meeting for our first team
dinner and I have nothing nice to wear because
I sweated out my only decent shirt. It's
hot and scary here, but I have not complained
once. After dinner, a few of us stayed up
to have a drink outside of our hotel. I
heard fruit bats chirping in the trees,
but was afraid to explore at night.
All evening the boys
were busy showing off their units - their
GPS units. Who had the newest, the most
expensive, best features...etc. What was
I thinking, going on a trip with all boys?!
September 30,
Expedition Compound, Agadez
-Carol Gudanowski
Last night, Ronan, Jeff, Andy and I went
to a club called "The Force of the
Lion Returns.” There were only about
five other people there besides the band.
We were the only ones on the dance floor
but that did not stop us from dancing. One
of the Nigerienne girls was so excited to
see me dance she stood up and danced with
me. We held hands and she copied my "American"
dance moves. When I sat down because I was
hot she took her headwrap and wiped my brow
for me. Andy tried to speak French to her
but she only spoke Hausa. I said "Sannu"
(which means hello) and she smiled and laughed.
When we finally left she hugged me and called
me "sister."
It felt so nice being
accepted at the local hangout, and the next
day everyone knew about us and kept telling
us to come back. Andy's new name on the
street was supposedly, "the tall man
who dances funny".
October 9, Camp
1, Northern Niger
-Carol Gudanoski
The team went out prospecting today and
left me behind. It was horrible without
them. I have never been so bored, so hot,
and so sick. During the peak of the day,
there was no shade, no breeze, and I was
running a fever. I was too nauseated to
read and spent most of the day swatting
flies off me and keeping myself cool with
wet bandanas. All there was to drink was
warm, and during noon, hot Gatorade. I even
tried taking a nap under the car with the
grasshoppers, but it wasn't as cool as I
expected. I can't tell you how happy I was
to hear a car engine in the distance. They
all came over to check how I was doing,
and of course I am so bouncy and chipper
to see them that you couldn't even tell
I was sick!
October 11,
Camp 2, Northern Niger
-Brian Nagurski
The trip to Niger has already been an adventure.
After a long flight, and the excitement
of catching our flights, while negotiating
with the airlines our necessity for escorting
medical supplies and Land Rover parts Phil
and I were met at the airport by a distinguished
man in an amazing Tuareg flowing robe and
shesh. His name is Hima and although his
appearance is commanding he is a very quiet
and unassuming man. This observation is
a little skewed as to the fact that he knows
about as much English as I do Tamacheck
(the Tuareg language). I did learn one useful
phase. “Tres bon.” I think it
is French - which will probably be our only
hope for communicating - and I think it
means “things are going well.”
I will definitely need to consult the old
French pocket dictionary guide tonight.
We travel to Base Camp
2 tonight and expect to find the rest of
the team doing well, in great spirits, and
hopefully examining a mother load of Mesozoic
finds.
October 25,
Camp 3
-Luke Mahler
Today we finished up mapping work at the
Neolithic site, where we’ve been active
for 3 days… Time was short and the
site was much more complex than anticipated
so we got to work immediately. We mapped
everything in the ground in radial fashion.
It’s easy to get
lost in such methodical and consuming work;
implications trickle in slowly. I’ve
mapped or excavated dozens of fossil specimens
this field season. But these are human fossils.
The difference didn’t hit me until
Josh motioned me to the area he was working.
He had brushed back the dirt from three
partially exposed skeletons. Two lay parallel,
facing each other. The third was that of
a toddler, and was huddled between them.
Pretty amazing to have
something stop you in your tracks like that.
We try to be objective, and of course, as
paleontologists, we try to put our finds
in a biological context, but as the afternoon
wears on, I find myself pondering over the
individual lives of those in the ground
here.
November 3, 2003
-Carol Gudanowski
The nights in Bilma are so windy! Not just
sporadic gusts of wind, but hours without
end of full-speed wind. Every time I poke
my head out of the sleeping bag the wind
hits me horizontally and I feel like I am
free falling. I am not sleeping much out
here. I wake up at least three times a night
with the need to go to the bathroom and
just shiver in my sleeping bag hoping the
feeling would go away.
It is so cold I used
two sleeping bags last night, but then I
had to chase after the top one when it was
blown off me. The whistling is so loud and
the loose fabric of my sleeping bag is rapping
against me. I am just laying here thinking,
“How come everyone is sound asleep
right now?”
It took forever to get
way out here. I can’t wait to write
home about my day riding in the car between
the boys and all their advice for me about
"men". Just kidding. I didn't
want to hear it in the first place!
November 12,
Bilma, Niger
-Paul Sereno
Two weeks ago we heard rumors of dinosaur
bones in the remote eastern part of Niger.
Although I’ve been to Niger many times,
I’ve never traveled to the remote
eastern oases that run towards the border
with Libya. I knew that a visit here would
require a treacherous 400-mile journey across
one of the most fabled and feared sand deserts
of the Sahara - the Tenere. But the team
was up for it. So we completely rearranged
the last week of our schedule. The risk
we faced, of course, was that we would get
there, but not have enough time to look
around.
It took us three days
of solid driving to get here, but we made
it. Bilma is like a dot in a sea of sand.
Everyone was heading there- not just us,
but also every one of the camel caravans
we passed. Didier and I queried anyone that
would talk to us in the oasis about anything
they had ever seen that looked like a fossil.
It took us so long to
get here that – just like we were
worried about - by the time we’ve
arrived we have to turn back!
We DID get to touch
the rocks though - and they smelled very
good for fossils. They all seem to be sandstone
–likely deposited by rivers. From
the edge of the outcrop I could see the
long cliff disappearing to the north; it
continues into the most desolate corner
of Niger, bordered by Algeria, Libya, and
Chad. We scrambled up onto the cliff and
found… a fossil leaf. That was the
main find, for which we had driven 800 miles!
Nevertheless I’m
hopeful, so I directed the team to bury
the plaster we carried to Bilma--for the
next expedition. My mind is already racing
ahead….
November 15,
Camp 4, Northern Niger
-Josh Miller
A flickering light startled me from my slumber
this morning - the morning we would return
to Niamey. A fire burned thirty feet from
our campsite. As I rubbed the sleep from
my eyes and the scene slipped into focus,
I realized that the flames were coming from
a small collection of twigs that Bido, our
illustrious guide, had gathered for fuel
for his morning tea.
The holy month of Ramadan
is only half over, and Bido’s breakfast
has to be finished before the rise of the
morning sun. Gazing into the fire and watching
as Bido ceremoniously poured his tea, I
realized that by the end of that day I would
be in Niamey and within 48 hours I would
be on a plane headed for Chicago. Our adventures
are at an end and any further fossil finds
will have to wait for our return to Niger.
In the cool morning
I was drawn towards the warmth of both Bido’s
fire and his friendship. “The Field”
is a magical place for paleontologists
because it offers great opportunity, remarkable
hardships and tremendous joy. Niger is no
exception and the fossils, friends and experiences
we had will remain permanently etched within
each of us.
Sitting next to Bido,
warming my hands by the coals of the fire,
I was reminded of all that we were about
to leave and all that we had experienced
in the past two months. I have seen camel
races and participated in ceremonial Fulani
dances; I was part of the Forum in Agadez
- and we all got to discuss the importance
and preservation of Niger’s dinosaur
deposits. I’ve journeyed hundreds
of miles by car and on foot looking, discovering,
and collecting fantastic dinosaur specimens
– some representing species new to
science and some that will simply improve
our knowledge of animals long-since extinct
from our globe.
Our time in Niger had
been a success in many ways and, although
the prospect of seeing home is alluring,
I know I will miss the people, cultures,
and paleontological treasures of Niger.
Raising our tea-filled glasses, Bido and
I toast to our past adventures, our great
scientific finds, and our friendship. So
long, Niger, and thanks!
November 17,
Hotel Terminus, Niamey
-Paul Sereno
It takes two long showers to get reasonably
clean at the end of an expedition. Now I
am back in Niamey, taking my second shower,
so I guess the 2003 expedition to Niger
really is coming to a close.
Earlier today I packed
the last fossils into the 20-foot Chicago-bound
container in the cargo yard. It’s
funny to see everything in one place at
last. I climbed over the 1000-pound jackets
that contain the most perfect SuperCroc
skull ever found. Next to them lay the almost
spherical jacket enclosing a similar-aged,
foot-long domed turtle; it’ll be a
species new to science. We also bagged several
theropod [carnivorous dinosaur] jaws; ponderous
sauropod bones. Piled on top near the back
was one of our favorites – the jacket
containing the new small theropod and a
new crocodile skull, possibly a descendant
of SuperCroc. Nestled in between these dinosaur-age
100- finds--a plastic tub containing a sampling
of artifacts from the incredible Neolithic
site we mapped, a site with as many as 200
human skeletons dating back at least 5000
years. And of course, amongst all the fossil
material – the team’s prerequisite
other hauls- a Touareg bed, sediment bags
bursting with sand from the Sahara, a camel
saddle, fossil wood….
We’ll be coming
back with about 8 to 10 tons of fossils.
It’s not a bad haul for a relatively
short stay in the desert with a generally
inexperienced team.
But my mind was already
far away, as I put the lock on the container
door and sealed in the field season's treasures.
In fact, my mind has been focused on elsewhere
for the last two weeks. All I can think
about is what’s next.
I rarely look back as
an expedition leader. I rarely muse over
the findings of an expedition. I always
dream about the next locality, the next
expedition, the next discovery, the next
chance to travel and see things few people
ever set eyes on. I guess this is what everyone
calls my “bone fever.”
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