No sign of the scorpions, but woke up surrounded by tracks in the sand. All small ones so there must be a variety of creepy crawlies about, they seem to mind their own business though. Not cold last night, and by 8:30 it was the sort of temperature that would normally have me skulking in the shade with a cold beer, not much chance of that though. Just after 9:00 we set off towards the dunes. Passing a camel skeleton at the foot we started climbing the biggest, hot work with the soft sand sliding back under your feet. Perhaps 500' climb to the sharp ridge, just room for a single row of people. Fantastic view to the south into the Great Western Erg (80,000 square miles of sand), and lots of photo taking. Had some fun running down the far side of the dune in a cloud of flying sand, like a scree slope but softer. Wound through big dunes for a while then emerged onto a mix of low dunes and rough ground baked into broken layers. Mainly walking on sand for the rest of the day, no more big climbs but it's getting very hot now, into the forties. Stopped for a short break at midday and sat down on the sand for a few minutes, bottom burningly hot, stood up looking as if I had wet myself - just sweat though! Dried in minutes. It makes you realise how much fluid you are losing. Stories about people stranded in the desert and trying to walk out mean a lot more now. I'm drinking about a gallon of water a day to keep hydrated, most of that goes as sweat. Without the ample water supply we would be lucky to last a day walking in this heat.
