Chapter 813 Supplies
Under the moonlight, the earth is only black and white.
The fine sand reflected the moonlight, and the surface of the desert turned slightly white, with only a black spot appearing abruptly on this silver carpet.
The huge camel bent its long neck and lowered its head to drink water, causing layers of bright ripples to appear on the inky black water surface.
Bifang squatted on one knee, dipped his hand in some water, put it in front of his nose and smelled it, flicked his fingers to shake off the water stains, and rubbed it dry on the sand.
"There is no peculiar smell. It should be a normal water source."
Today is not a full moon and visibility is limited. Bifang cannot judge the purity of the water source by sight and can only make a rough judgment by smell.
"All oasis water sources in the desert are running water. Stagnant water cannot exist here for a long time. The water vapor evaporation rate here is the highest in the world. A 100 ml cup of water in the most ordinary glass can evaporate completely in a few minutes."
"However, even running water should not be taken lightly. There are a large number of wild camels in the desert, and they often defecate in water sources."
"Especially on some fixed routes, hundreds of camels drink water and rest every day, and they even dye the water black."
"Camels are fine if they drink this kind of water, but humans don't have the physique to handle it, and they can't handle this kind of water."
"There is no peculiar smell. Excluding any dangerous organisms nearby, it is most likely a normal water source."
[Great! We found water!]
[Fang Shen is just watching for fun. If you really want to find a water source, you have to rely on me, Alpha.]
Are you polite?
Bifang stood up and used a stick to probe the bushes to make sure there were no poisonous insects, snakes or scorpions hiding inside. Then he began to break off dead branches and prepare to make a fire to boil water.
This oasis is very long and narrow. From a high altitude, it looks like a banana. Its total area is about the size of a football field. It is neither small nor large. It is surrounded by narrow green belts less than three meters wide.
Bifang went around for most of the way before he collected enough firewood.
These dead plants have lost their ability to absorb water. Compared to the humid climate of the rainforest, as long as they stay in the desert for a day, they will completely lose the water in their bodies and become firewood that is very easy to ignite. This is also one of the few conveniences in the desert.
Bifang took out two pieces of flint from his backpack and rubbed them with one hand. A few sparks floated on the dry branches . After repeating this several times, a circle of orange light was soon ignited in the darkness.
The light dispelled the cold and darkness. Bifang picked out a thicker branch and carried it to the pond.
The firelight was clearly reflected on the water's surface, but the color of the water was still unclear.
Bifang gave up the idea and continued to boil water.
"If you don't find a direct water source in the desert, but only find green plants, you can also put plastic bags on the plants and wait for transpiration during the day, and then distill the water using the temperature difference between day and night to get clean water."
"In ancient times, when fighting a war, they said that food could not be transported a thousand miles away. This meant that the food transported a thousand miles away would not be enough for the mules, horses and escorts to eat."
"It is meaningless to carry 50 kilograms of water and sweat 40 kilograms. You should properly balance the weight according to your physiological condition and the distance you are traveling. Generally, 4,000 milliliters is enough in the desert."
"But, I have Alpha, so it's no problem for me to carry three times as much water as I want. What's limiting us is the container."
"The container required for holding water is quite high, and it must be able to be properly stored. The best is actually the stomach of an animal, or if you are more skilled, you can use their skin."
Bifang rummaged through his backpack and took out several dead rattlesnakes. These were the ones he had encountered on the road these days. Some of them had already been eaten, leaving only the snake skins and stomachs, which now became excellent water storage materials.
"Although rattlesnakes are not large in size, their stomachs are extremely expandable. A snake can hold two liters of water without any problem. And it's like a balloon. As long as you tie a knot at the end, it won't leak."
Bifang put the snakes on his arms one by one, took them to the pond, and began to wash and make them.
With four snakes and a water bottle, you can carry nearly 10,000 milliliters of water. If you drink it sparingly, you can last for nearly a week.
"It's better not to sleep too close to the water source at night. It's easy to run into other animals. We can come back tomorrow."
After fetching some water, Bifang did not choose to stay here to spend the whole night, but led Alpha, who had drunk enough water, away to the southwest. He did not look for shelter specifically, but dug a hole and managed to get by for the whole night.
Early the next morning, Bifang returned to the pond and continued to boil water. He looked around and even took a bath and washed his clothes. After washing away the heat from his body, he looked for suitable plants near the oasis and began to weave a soft basket.
Alpha was munching on tender sprouts in the oasis, his mouth moving back and forth to replenish the loss of the past few days. He even urinated, which was a rare occurrence. After repeated absorption, the urine became as thick as pus. Although it was a bit strong, it still amazed many viewers.
[By the way, is Fang Shen pretending too much? I feel like he’s going to explode.]
[This creamy yellow color gives me some bad associations (dog head)]
【Whatever you think, speak up! 】
Too avant-garde
[We old-fashioned people cannot bear to see this]
[Will it really not explode? 】
Baskets woven with branches were hung on both sides of the camel, and Bifang put the bulging snake stomachs into them. They looked like big milky white balloons filled with water. The fresh water flowing inside could be clearly seen through the surface, which made people worry whether they had put too much in.
"Don't worry, the snake gastric band is very expandable, and I specially wove a soft basket, so it won't break easily."
Bifang held the baskets on both sides of the camel, which were woven from long leaves. Rather than being frames, they were more like hollow bags that held the water bags tightly.
After doing all this, Bifang looked back at Alpha and found that it was still eating grass in the bushes.
[Absolutely starving]
[By the way, Alpha hasn't eaten for a long time (dog head)]
[I ate some. Actually, it’s not like I didn’t encounter any plants. Didn’t I encounter two trees last time? But I don’t think I was very full.]
[The poor kid's hump is much flatter]
An adult healthy camel can go without food or water for 15 to 30 days if it is well fed and watered.
Under normal circumstances, a camel can eat about 13 kilograms of dry food and drink about 10 liters of water in one meal.
In extreme cases, such as returning from the desert, one can eat at least 30 kilograms of food and drink up to 120 liters of water at a time.
The food and water they eat and drink every day far exceeds what their bodies need. This is actually a form of storage, and the sign of this is that their humps are full and upright.
Eating and drinking a lot lays the foundation for the camel's ability to withstand hunger and thirst in the future.
After following Bifang for so long, just as the audience said, the hump is indeed not as swollen as at the beginning. It looks a little listless, and the tip is a little soft. Of course, it may also be because I have been sitting for too long.
The fat in the hump also needs to be replenished, so Bifang decided to wait for a day, or even two days if necessary, and set off tomorrow to get Alpha back to its peak condition as much as possible.
"There's still plenty of time. Let's see if there's any food we can collect next."
There are several Dumu palm trees in the oasis, and you may be able to find some fruit.
You can also look for fish in the pond as a further supplement.
"Fish cannot survive without water, and water happens to be the most scarce resource in the desert, so many people may think that there can be no fish in the desert."
"But the desert is not completely lifeless. There are usually oases in the desert, and there may be fish in the water of the oases, especially in deserts with many underground rivers. For example, there are crucian carp and grass carp in the oases of the Taklimakan Desert in my country."
"In addition to oases, there are also underground rivers, lakes and caves in the desert."
[Oasis, lake, underground river, aren't these the same thing? (Shivering)]
[Bold! Insolent! Are you questioning Fangshen? Save your life with your dog head.]
[Our God cannot be wrong! ]
"There is still a difference." Bifang touched his head and laughed, "Generally speaking, a lake in a desert is an oasis, but there are exceptions."
"In the northeastern state of Niu Lanyang, there is a desert with an area of 1,500 square kilometers, which is the famous Thousand Lakes Desert."
"Brazil is mainly a tropical rainforest climate, which everyone should know, so it is indeed rare to have a desert. The formation of this desert is actually closely related to the tropical rainforest climate."
"Because Brazil has too much rainfall, its two main rivers often flood seasonally. The flooded rivers carry a lot of silt and pour into the Atlantic Ocean, forming a large number of yellow sand dunes at the estuary. These yellow sand dunes are blown inland by the trade winds blowing from the sea, forming deserts."
[Good fellow, this is the case of things going to the opposite extreme]
[Strange geographical knowledge has increased]
Bifang broke off a branch from the tree and made fishing line and hook.
"After the desert was formed, the average annual rainfall here is as high as 1,600 mm, so once the rainy season comes, lakes of various sizes will form in the desert, hence the name Thousand Lakes Desert. But it is not an oasis because the lake is not stable, while the ecology of an oasis is stable."
"The dry lake desert is the same as the river, so there are a lot of fish, and it has the honor of being the desert with the most fish in the world."
Bifang processed a small section of elastic branch into a hook structure, stuffed it into a small section of tube, tied it to a fishing line, and threw it into the lake.
"The second is underground rivers. There are many types of underground rivers in the desert. Some are caused by heavy rainfall, but the water cannot be stored and flows into the ground. Some are completely dry. However, due to the large temperature difference between day and night in the desert, the water vapor in the air will be saturated at night and condense through the desert surface into the ground. After years of accumulation, flowing groundwater will form in some desert areas."
"The desert underground river has no entrance, but it has an exit and is connected to other water systems, so fish from other water systems can enter it."
"However, after entering the dark river, due to the lack of light, these fish often lose their eyes and become blind fish."
"The Tuaghers in the Sahara Desert live completely in the desert. As human beings, they naturally need water and food. The main source of water is underground rivers, and the food is fish in underground rivers."
"Having lived in the desert for so long, the Tuaghers are able to accurately find underground rivers. The next step is to dig them. When water appears, they will hang insects on the hooks to fish."
[Another miracle race]
[There are Sherpas in Everest, who are the divers, and Maasai. We are all human beings, so why are they so awesome?]
[But Fang Shen is more awesome than all of them! ]
[I understand, Fang Shen is the ultimate creature!!!]
[I have long suspected that Lao Fang is not a human being (funny)]
"Finally, there are caves. In addition to underground rivers, oases and lakes, there are also naturally formed caves in the desert. Some of these caves have water, and there are fish in these caves with water."
"Death Valley in the United States is an arid, uninhabited area. In the Mojave Desert, there is a 130-meter-deep cave where fish were found. These fish are less than 5 centimeters long and there are about 300 of them. Scientists later named them the devil killifish."
"There is nothing much to say about an oasis, because an oasis itself is a complete small ecosystem with invertebrates and aquatic plants in the water."
"However, in the above terrains, the fish are mostly small in size, because in most of the above environments, the food abundance is very poor and cannot support large fish. These small fish rely on their small size and low energy requirements to survive tenaciously."
"That's why we don't need a very good fishing rod. A branch is enough."
As he spoke, Bifang pulled up a branch, and a small fish no bigger than a palm was hanging on it, flapping its tail continuously.
"Tilapia, the most common fish in the Sahara Desert, seems to have a lot of connections underground."
[Hiss, there's really a fish! ]
[Fishing in the desert is a skill]
【It's you who's returned】
[Do fish in the desert taste better? ]
[No, it will be more expensive]
Bifang picked it off, put it into the Loukuang, hung the fruit on the fishing hook, and continued to throw it into the pond.
Waiting until the afternoon, Alpha stopped eating, and Bifang also had a good harvest and had a grilled fish dinner at night.
The next day, Alpha continued to eat, chewing monotonously with his big mouth, as if he would never get tired, like a ruthless grazing machine.
Bifang touched Alpha's hump and found that it had basically recovered, which showed that it had almost stopped.
After filling the kettle with water, Bifang pulled away Alpha who was still eating, rode on his back, and continued to move forward.
There is a boundless desert under my feet, and a vast blue sky above my head without a trace of impurities. The sky and the boundless desert merge into a line at the distant edge.
Mali has become the background, and perhaps tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, they will arrive at the next country.
