The mountain and the quiver tree

Heat. Space. Time. Time is the third dimension of Namibia. In the middle of nowhere, where nothing happens, time seems to last for ever. Wind, silence, dust, and mountains in the distance. First let me tell you about the camp.
Ten blue tents, one each for the competitors, are pitched in the shadow of the magnificent Brandberg mountain, the highest peak in Namibia. There are larger brown tents for the race organisers, and the camp cooks.
The tents are pitched on the gravel dirt of the desert. There are two holes in the ground to act as toilets. That’s it. This morning after breakfast the entire group went for an acclimatisation walk. It lasted four hours and was a sharp lesson for all in the reality of moving in the desert.
Most had drunk their first litre of water before the sun had time to rise above the mountain and only an hour into the trek. They regretted it later. During the walk we climbed Beacon Hill, a towering rocky outcrop.
The sun was relentless. There was no breeze. From the top of the hill you could see the full majesty of the Namib desert. In every direction you looked it stretched forever. If you look hard you might see a tree.
We walked past one, a quiver tree, so called as the native bushmen used it to make the quivers for their arrows. The one thing you can’t acclimatise to here is distance. This is a land with no horizons.
The remainder of the long hot day was taken up with briefings. We were furnished with details of the route, and a satellite image map which was fascinating but turned out to be useless. Looking from above, the route did not look so far! Time in camp was also spent getting to know the other competitors.
The smoker turned out to be Tom Maguire, a 35-year-old world record holding ultra marathon runner, and a man with three victories in super distance races to his credit. He had eyes that really know the loneliness of the long distance runner.
The remainder of the crew were far less experienced, apart from Andy McMenemy, a veteran of the infamous Marathon Des Sables, who turned out to be a wealth of knowledge on ultra nutrition, hydration, foot care, equipment and training.
Both had target times in their mind. The rest of us were concentrating on completion and survival. Dinner as the sun set was swiftly followed by bed under the stars. We fell into a nervous sleep.