Featuring Pierre Schmitt - 56 min

Walking across the desert of Ténéré, without any help

 "It is better to go and see rather than only hearing about it.  An eternal curious and long intrigued by these famous Blue Men, I have taken this Tuareg saying as an invitation."    

In February-March 2005, Pierre Schmitt discreetly plunged in a white-hot Ténéré to cross and climb back to the oriental fringe "Massif de l'Air" to go and see it...very closely: alone and on foot, without any guide nor 4x4, not even a camel but a mere handcrafted "sled."  "Just to live fully an inner desert."  Lonely within this vastness, it's a taste of life which temporarily worms in an extreme environment, to emerge before it is evaporated.          

Despite a varying temperature of 50°C (in the shade) and over 70°C on the ground, he brings only 2,5 litres of drinking water per day (more than 1,5 litres to cook the 3 daily meals).  During one and a half month and the 4 stops (between the sole water supply points available), he is compelled to accept the persistent thirst, unbearable heat and the sand whipped up by the wind being one with the elements and the landscape.  But due to the dehydration, reality soon turns abstract and the biggest danger is actually to lose consciousness of things..."         

Exploring the mental and physiological boundaries of a deliberately caused acclimatization is not the sole motivation of Pierre.  "I am always intrigued by the nomads and what may well keep them in such a hostile environment; what philosophy of life do these people hold!"   

"Since then, I regularly returned to Ténéré, where human is so close to the basic things and where a part of myself now lives."