Eleven days and 2600 miles after leaving the UK we did our first days work. Looking at fire hearths in Waw en Kebir made by upright man (us!) between 2000 and 5000 years ago. It’s a quiet spot and we had it to ourselves. Probably 2-300 square miles, mainly flat, with a few raised bits along the north and south flanks just visible about 30 miles away. The hearths were of particular interest as they contained Acheulean stone tools (The style of manufacture indicates these pre date fire - cave man stuff, 100,000 years +) that had been reused as stones to line a hearth along with regular stones, to possibly cook something. Simon Armitage has the task of dating these in a lab back in London. From that he can calculate when the fire was burning. There were loads of hearths and this would indicate lots of people along what was once a lush green valley. We moved on to a way point identified by satellite image as the likely last damp patch to take a core sample. As we got closer there turned out to be an army base there. This was best avoided, not for any danger, but by the time you have shaken hands with everybody and drunk tea, half a day is lost. We pressed on a bit and camped. The pictures show a charred stone tool, our camp with the glow of light from the base about 2 miles away and lunch, served on a gingham table cloth out of the back of my Land Rover. Nothing if not stylish.
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