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STUDENT PERSPECTIVESnuts. Three days later I found out I was selectedand there was no turning back. It gave meamazing courage.He needed it.Fifteen vaccinations later, after rebuilding hisbike and with dire warnings of ‘deadly parasites’looming large in his consciousness, Witold beganhis momentous journey. A week in North Africabrought him to the disputed territory of theWestern Sahara – ‘one of the biggest minefieldsin the world’– where Witold and his companionhad to make educated guesses as to where theycould venture. Apart from mines, snakes andscorpions were his companions. Nothing,however, compared with Mauritania, whichWitold described as ‘probably the mostdysfunctional and dangerous country in this partof the world, notorious for the kidnapping andexecution of the Dakar Rally raceofficials the previous year.’Witold told us his simple rules for survival inthe Sahara…water is time, petrol is distance. If you run outof either, you know you are in big trouble soon.If you are on a major piste, with a little bit ofluck somebody will pick you up in time… a thirdrule is: in case of any vehicle failure, never walkout on it. The chances you get anywhere areclose to none.And thus they crossed the Sahara and arrivedat Nouakchott ‘exhausted and petrified’ havingbeen the first to come across the remains oftwo Frenchmen, who had been abandoned bytheir guide fourteen years ago in the middleof the desert.Riding through dunes isn’t an easy task; ittakes a lot of experience to understand thegeometry of the dunes aligning with thewind and the dynamics of the bike on deepsand... Having to sustaina speed of at least sixty kilometres an hourto prevent the bike from sinking into the sanddoesn’t help either.From Nouakchott, Witold headed off towardsMali and Lomé on his own. He recounted forus the tribal life of the Fulani; his visit to theGreat Mosque at Djenne; the religious beliefs heencountered (including Voodoo); before closingwith a vivid account of how he contracted malariaand gave birth to a mango fly that grew underhis skin!Dúnlaith Bird will deliver the next WallaceWatson Lecture on 13 May 2009. Please see theCollege’s website, www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk, formore details.Witold CzartoryskiPanorama near Ak Baital, TajikistanST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE 2008/33