Here are various images of daily life on the trip.

Caravanning across the desert. They really should get some walkie-talkies so the first car can find out if the last car gets a flat tire.

The food truck, which carried three in the cab and four or five on the top.

One of the Tuaregs made drawings in the sand.

Frisbee was popular with guests and staff alike.

Everywhere we went, someone materialized out of nowhere to sell us trinkets.

The vehicles were constantly maintained. We talked to someone on a different expedition two days after the eclipse who had missed it because of vehicle breakdown.

In Timbuktu, we had a camel ride — some Tuaregs led it around for half an hour. On this trip, we were actually able to drive most of the camels, nuzzling its neck with our feet to go, pulling on its rein to stop, pulling left or right to turn. But one of the camels Dave and I shared had its own ideas, and ended up being led anyway.

We stopped for a few hours every afternoon for lunch, under a tree if one was available. Not only was it hard on the cars to travel in the heat, it was more difficult to navigate with the sun directly overhead (the Tuaregs don't use GPS either, although the guests had at least half a dozen between them.)

When there were no trees, blankets were strung up between jeeps.

The camel saddles sitting out in the bright sunlight. (I think I left the camera on manual from some photos in the shade.)

Goat skins kept water nice and cool. Dave and I used a filter just to remove various obnoxious flavors that some of the water had, but the water was safe enough that there were few if any adverse reactions from it.

Shampooing at the well at Achegour.

Setting up camp just before sunset.

The pre-eclipse celebration was mechoui, a dish made of sheep cooked under a layer of coals. It was delicious. Preparing the sheep...

Sunset. I have heard that sometimes you can see a green flash in the desert, but not this time. There is way too much sand in the air.

The last sliver of the moon before it became an eclipse.

These eclipse pictures were taken by Steve Garren, one of the campers on the trip. It's impossible to take one picture of an eclipse that looks like the real thing, since the eye has so much more dynamic range than film (or a digital camera sensor). Another photographer has made a composite of several exposures, resulting in a fascinating image. I go to all these eclipses and don't take photos. It's more fun to watch, and there are so many people with the very best equipment, taking good photos. My old 500mm lens doesn't match my new D70 body focuswise, and I'm not going to spend 4 minutes making it all line up when I could be watching a glorious eclipse with Venus and Mercury and serried ranks of shadow bands (only after third contact). No sunset colors but dirt, no moonshadow to speak of, you never get everything in each eclipse. You have to choose between watching the first contact diamond ring and watching anything else cause it will leave an annoying trail on your eye. And so forth. This was a very nice eclipse, down to the east side/west side gang signs that the corona made sticking out on the sun's equatorial plane (which you can see best if you click on "Home" and look at the thumbnail of the composite image mentioned above).

A shorter exposure, showing some of the prominences. Steve had a really nice camera setup. He's also a doctor, and was able to help many of the locals we met along the way their various medical problems. He also was a lifesaver for us, bringing a voltage inverter that allowed the computer battery to get recharged.

A close-up of the prominences on the other side, as third contact approaches.

Here's a satellite picture of Africa that day, showing how good the weather was. I'm not really sure where the shadow of the moon was when it was taken.

On the way back, we drove through deep sand, and spent some time stuck in it.

Each vehicle had metal ladders which the drivers and their assistants would lay down in front of the stuck wheel to provide traction. After the wheel ground itself safely over the ladder, they would snatch the ladder, run, and throw it down in front of that wheel or another, to keep the truck going in the mode of the world's most rudimentary half-track.

This Unimog whizzed past all of us. This truck is clearly of the get-stuck-in-MUCH-deeper-sand school.

On to Desert Creatures