The Sahara is a desert in the true sense of the word only for those who have never seen it. The slightest rain, the poorest humidity and the smallest water hole already allow for a vegetation that never ceases to amaze the traveller. And how much life then develops around the freshly sprouted plant .... Even the wind compels the weak stems of the "gazelle grass" to mark its all too constant direction, using them instead of a compass. - Enneri Blaka - Niger - 1975
