On the desert sands

Sun, too much sunshine.
Sand, dunes, some rocks.
Water points, spaced out.
Palm trees in the distance, announcing rest.

Turning on the animal's back, looking backwards, I see the line stretching through the desert.

I look around and I see ... camels ... more camels ...
Of various colours ... in lines ... guided ... guiding ...
Crossing the desert... through the desert...

Mirage?

No! It's real!

The reality of a cameleer, one of five.
Riding and driving camels across the desert.
Forming ever larger caravans, filling the void.

In search of water points.
Surrounding territories.
Linking Oasis.

Aiming to have the longest caravan.

And yes! Camels have colours!

There are many, in this desert area.
I have counted them, on a good day.
Ten, twenty, thirty ... fifty ... one hundred ... one hundred and seventy, that I know of!

Belonging to different tribes, gathering up to 30 cameleers.
A difficult scene to imagine, for those who have never witnessed a camel parade.

The desert is not always deserted.
There are days.

Water.
Water points.
Synonymous of life in the desert.

Strategic points, of greater or lesser value.
Victory points, worth one, two or three points.

That only reward the first of all.
Exhausted upon a caravan arrival.
Like water, that is scarce.

The arrival to an oasis.
Five points to the caravan.

The oasis remains.
The caravan may carry on.

An oasis in rush hour.
Reached by four caravans.

They all benefit from the shade of palm trees.
All get points and may continue their path.

Sometimes the cameleers claim land as their own.
The caravan traces the boundaries of a desert portion.

Ensuring the belonging of the water that is found inside.
Securing a number of points equal to the extent of the sands.

The biggest caravan of all the caravans.
The pride of any cameleer.

A competition for every camel colour.
Because we all know that caravans are monochromatic.

With as much value as reaching two oasis.

Sunset over desert.
Shadows stretching.
Accounts that must be settled.

Through the desert is, above all, a matter of skill in space and time.

In space, because these camel caravans don't really move. They just grow up. One or two camels at a time. From a starting position.

In space too, because one cannot cross each other, because they cannot touch when of the same color, because they allow or make it impossible to access water points and oasis, because they define territories.

In time, because it is all a matter of choices: to grow a caravan faster by adding two camels at once, or to grow two different caravans, to get points or to confine opponents, seeking to have the largest caravan or diversifying the strategy.

In time, because all choices have opportunity costs.

Sunset over Desert.
It was no mirage.


Knizia, Reiner, Durch die Wüste [Through the desert], Stuttgart, 1998: Kosmos Verlag.