Below is a section of one of the navigation charts we used. It is an Operational Navigation Chart from the U.S. Air Force, in this case ONC H-3. And the story, of course, is about navigation.
We had already been on the road for a few days, traveling from Djanet to Tamanrasset. We were riding with another Dutch group and a Swiss group consisting of two off-road motorcycles with a Land Rover as a support vehicle. The motorcycles often rode far ahead; sometimes all we could see were clouds of dust on the horizon. They had already ridden this trail several times. That afternoon, the landscape and the light were stunning, and we were really enjoying the trip. However, the trail headed due west, while we were supposed to be heading slightly more toward the southwest.
Since we no longer trusted our position, we decided to stop so we could determine our location using a sextant once it got dark. The other Dutch group wanted to “hitch a ride” on our navigation technique, and in the end, even the “motor group”—who thought they knew the terrain well—joined us as well.
When it was dark, Ben and John made a “fix,” determining our position using the North Star and the planet Venus. And they did all this using a sextant with an artificial horizon, which we had been able to borrow from KLM. Our position was determined at 24°07′ N and 6°35′ E; the position is marked with the blue arrow. We were 20 km north of the trial where we were supposed to be, indicated by the yellow arrow. That trial would have led further southwest, toward Tamanrasset, which was our destination. The trial we were now on would eventually turn due north, completely in the wrong direction. We had likely ended up on the wrong trial about 50 km back, near Mount Jebel Telerhteba (red arrow).
The next morning, Ben checked the position that John and he had determined the previous evening by taking cross-bearing readings of the surrounding mountains with a bearing compass. Everything matched perfectly; there could be absolutely no doubt about our position.
Now that we knew exactly where we were, it was also clear where we needed to go. Once everyone had packed up, we turned the car due south and set off, with the other two groups following close behind. After driving almost exactly 20 km, we suddenly found ourselves on the main trial to Tamanrasset.
After an adventure like that, it’s only natural to sit down and chat for a while—which is exactly what we’re doing in the photo above. After that, everyone went their separate ways. We were in the biggest hurry, because we’d lost nine days in Djanet due to a fuel shortage. And we had to get home.