“There's No Time to Waste Then, Is There?”

I’m off for Central Asia, to look at some of the cities along the Silk Road. I’ve done the Eastern (“Chinese”) portion, from Chang’an (Xi’an) across to Kashgar. It would be fun to plow straight on west over the mountains, but I think I’ll pass on that and instead just drop in by plane. Not knowing whether I will have—or want to use—internet access, I’ve put up a few “anticipatory location posts” to sketch out the framework as scheduled over the next several weeks. Meanwhile, for starters:

…the caravan had settled into the dull routine of desert travel: long, hot stages through a featureless landscape with an indifferent inn at the day’s end if they were lucky; problems with sick camels; cold desert nights; searing daytime heat; dust storms and floods that arouse without warning; and the continuing threat of bandits.

—Susan Whitfield, The Silk Road 44 (“The Merchant’s Tale”) (1999)

Or in the immortal words of Omar Sharif: “If the camels die, we die. And in twenty days they will start to die.” And as Peter O’Toole responded: “There's no time to waste, then, is there?”