Chapter 817 Supplies

Under the moonlight, the earth is only black and white.

The fine gravel reflects the moonlight, and the surface of the desert is slightly white, with only a black spot appearing abruptly on this silver carpet.

The huge camel bends its long neck and lowers its head to drink water, and the dark water surface is covered with layers of dark and bright ripples.

Bifang squatted on one knee, reached out to dip some water, put it in front of his nose and smelled it, flicked his fingers, shook off the water stains, and rubbed it dry on the sand.

"There is no odor, it should be a normal water source."

Today is not a full moon, visibility is limited, Bifang cannot judge the purity of the water source by sight, and can only roughly judge by smell.

"All oasis water sources in the desert are running water. Dead water cannot exist here for a long time. This place has the highest water vapor evaporation rate in the world. A cup of 100 ml of water in the most ordinary glass can evaporate completely in a few minutes."

"However, even running water cannot be taken lightly. There are a large number of wild camels in the desert, and they often defecate in water sources."

"Especially on some fixed routes, hundreds of camels drink water and rest every day, and they will even directly dye the water black."

"It's natural for camels to drink such water, but people don't have such a physique and can't withstand such water sources."

"There is no peculiar smell. Excluding dangerous creatures nearby, it is likely to be a normal water source."

[Great, I found water! ]

[Fang Shen just watched for fun. I, Alpha, have to look for the real water source]

[Are you polite? ]

Bifang stood up and used a stick to probe the bushes to avoid any poisonous insects, snakes and scorpions hidden in them. Then he began to break dead branches and prepare to make a fire to boil water.

This oasis is very narrow and long. From the air, it looks like a banana. The total area is about the size of a football field. It is neither small nor large. It is surrounded by narrow green belts less than three meters wide.

Bifang went around for most of the circle before collecting enough firewood.

These dead plants have lost their ability to absorb water. Compared with the humid climate of the rainforest, as long as they stay in the desert for a day, they will completely lose their body moisture and become firewood that is very easy to ignite. This is one of the few conveniences in the desert.

Bifang took out two pieces of flint from his backpack and rubbed them with one hand. Several sparks floated on the dry branches. After several repetitions, a circle of orange light soon ignited in the darkness.

The light dispelled the cold and darkness. Bifang picked out a thicker branch and held it to the side of the pool.

The water surface clearly reflected the firelight, but the water color was still not visible.

Bifang gave up this idea and continued to boil water.

"If you don't find a direct water source in the desert, but only find green plants, you can also put plastic bags on the green plants and wait for transpiration during the day, and then distill them by the temperature difference between day and night to get clean water."

"In ancient times, it was said that food could not be transported for a thousand miles, which means that the food transported for a thousand miles would not be enough for the mules and escorts."

"It is meaningless to carry 50 kilograms of water and sweat 40 kilograms. The weight should be properly distributed according to your physiological condition and the distance. Generally, 4000 milliliters is enough in the desert."

"But I have Alpha, and it is no problem to carry three times the water resources. What limits us is the container."

"The container for holding water has high requirements, and it must be properly stored. The best is actually the stomach of the animal, or their skin if the craftsmanship is a little better."

Bifang rummaged through the backpack and took out several dead rattlesnakes. These were all he encountered on the road these days. Some of them had been eaten, leaving only the snake skin and stomach, which had become excellent water storage materials at this time.

"Although rattlesnakes are not big, their stomachs have extremely good expansion capacity. A snake can easily hold two liters of water. Moreover, it is like a balloon. As long as you tie a knot at the end, it will not leak."

Bifang put the snakes on his arms one by one, took them to the pond, and began to wash and make.

Four snakes, plus a kettle, can carry nearly 10,000 milliliters of water. If you drink it sparingly, it can last for nearly a week.

"It is better not to sleep too close to the water source at night, as it is easy to encounter other animals. We can come back tomorrow."

After taking some water, Bifang did not choose to stay here to spend the whole night, but led Alpha, who had drunk enough water, to leave in the southwest direction. He did not look for shelter, but dug a pit and dealt with it for a night.

When the next morning came, Bifang returned to the pond, continued to boil water, looked at the surrounding environment, and even poured water to take a bath, washed his clothes, washed away the heat all over his body, and then looked for suitable plants near the oasis and weaved a soft basket.

Alpha nibbled on the young sprouts in the oasis, his mouth twisted back and forth, filling up the loss of the past few days, and even urinated for a rare time. After repeated absorption, it was as thick as pus. Although it was a bit heavy, it still surprised many viewers.

[By the way, is Fang Shen pretending too much? I feel like he is going to explode]

[This milky yellow color makes me have some bad associations (dog head)]

[What do you think of? Say it boldly! ]

[Too avant-garde]

[We old-fashioned people can't stand this]

[Is it really not going to explode? ]

Baskets made of woven branches were hung on both sides of the camel. Bifang put the bulging snake stomach bag into it, like milky white balloons filled with water. You can clearly see the fresh water flowing inside through the surface. , which makes people worry about whether they are pretending to be too much.

"Don't worry, the snake's stomach band is very expandable, and I specially woven a soft basket so it won't break easily."

Bi Fang held the baskets on both sides of the camel, which were woven with long leaves. They were more like hollow bags than frames, holding the water bag tightly.

After doing this, Bi Fang looked back at Alpha and found that it was still grazing in the bushes.

【Absolutely hungry】

[By the way, Alpha hasn’t eaten for a long time (dog head)]

[I ate some. In fact, Lao Fang didn’t encounter any plants at all. Didn’t he encounter two trees last time? It’s just that I don’t feel like I’m full]

[The poor child’s hump is quite deflated]

An adult healthy camel can survive without eating or drinking for 15-30 days if it is well fed and drunk.

Under normal circumstances, a camel can eat about 13 kilograms of dry food and drink about 10 liters of water in one meal.

If it is in extreme circumstances, such as returning from the desert, it can eat at least 30 kilograms of food and drink up to 120 liters of water at one time.

They eat and drink far more food and water than their bodies need every day. This is actually a reserve, and the sign is that the hump is full and upright.

Eating more and drinking more lays the foundation for the camel's ability to withstand hunger and thirst in the future.

After following Bifang for so long, as the audience said, the hump is indeed not as bulging as it was at the beginning. It looks a little weak, and the peaks are a little soft. Of course, it may be because of sitting for a long time.

The fat in the hump also needed to be replenished, so Bi Fang decided to wait a day, or even two days if necessary, before setting off again tomorrow, so that Alpha could return to his peak condition as much as possible.

"We still have plenty of time, let's see if there is any food to collect next."

There are a few doom palm trees in the oasis and maybe some fruits can be found.

You can also look for fish in the pool to make further supplements.

"Fish cannot survive without water, and water is the most scarce resource in the desert. Therefore, many people may think that there cannot be fish in the desert."

"But deserts are not completely lifeless. There are usually oases in the desert, and there may be fish in the water of the oasis, especially in deserts with many underground rivers. For example, there are crucian carp and grass carp in the oasis in the Taklimakan Desert in my country."

"In addition to oases, there are also possibilities for underground rivers, lakes and caves in the desert."

[Oasis, lake, underground river, aren’t these the same thing (shivering)]

【Bold! presumptuous! Are you questioning Fang Shen? , dog head saves life]

【Our God cannot be wrong! 】

"There is still a difference." Bi Fang rubbed his head and laughed, "Generally, lakes in the desert are oases, but there are exceptions."

"There is a desert covering an area of ​​1,500 square kilometers in Niulaniang State in northeastern Pakistan, which is the famous Thousand Lakes Desert."

"Brazil mainly has a tropical rainforest climate. Everyone should know this, so deserts are indeed rare, and the formation of this desert actually has a lot to do with the tropical rainforest climate."

"Because Brazil has too much rainfall, its two main rivers often flood seasonally. The flooded river water carries a large amount of sediment and pours into the Atlantic Ocean, forming a large number of yellow sand dunes at the estuary. These yellow sand dunes are due to The influence of trade winds blowing from the sea was blown inland, forming deserts.”

[Good guy, things must be reversed when they reach their extremes]

[Weird geographical knowledge has been added]

Bi Fang broke off a branch from the tree and made fishing lines and hooks.

"After the desert was formed, because the average annual precipitation here was as high as 1,600 millimeters, once the rainy season came, large and small lakes would form in the desert, hence the name Qianhu Desert, but it is not an oasis. Because the lake is not stable, but the ecology of the oasis is stable.”

"The dry lake desert is the same as the river, so there are a lot of fish, and there is the achievement of having the most fish desert in the world."

Bi Fang processed a small section of elastic branch into a hook structure, stuffed it into a small section of pipe, tied it to the fishing line, and threw it into the lake.

"The second is the underground river. There are various forms of underground rivers in the desert. Some of them rain a lot, but cannot be stored. They enter the ground, and some dry up completely. However, due to the large temperature difference between day and night in the desert, the water vapor in the air will evaporate at night. Saturated and condensed through the desert surface into the ground, accumulation over the years will form underground flowing groundwater in some desert areas."

"The desert underground river has no entrance, but it has an outlet and is connected to other water systems, so fish from other water systems will enter it."

"However, since there is no light after entering the underground river, these fish often degenerate their eyes and become blind fish."

"The Tuagre people in the Sahara Desert live completely in the desert. As humans, they naturally need water and food. The main source of water is the underground river, and the food is the fish in the underground river."

"Living in the desert for a long time, the Tuagre people can accurately find underground rivers. The next step is to dig them. When water is exposed, they will put insects on their hooks to fish."

【Another miraculous race】

[There are Sherpas in Everest, who are the divers, and Maasai. They are all human beings, so why are they so awesome?]

[But Fang Shen is more awesome than all of them!]

[I understand. Fang Shen is the ultimate creature! ! !]

[I have long suspected that Old Fang is not a human (funny)]

“Finally, there are caves. In addition to underground rivers, oases and lakes in the desert, there are also naturally formed caves, and some of these caves have water, and there are fish in these caves with water.”

“The Death Valley in the United States is an arid and uninhabited area. There is a 130-meter-deep cave in the Mojave Desert. Fish were found in it. The body length of these fish is less than 5 cm, and there are about 300 of them. Later, scientists named them the magic killifish.”

“There is nothing much to say about the oasis, Because the oasis itself is a complete small ecosystem, with invertebrates and aquatic plants in the water. "

"However, in the above terrain, the fish are mostly small in size, because in most of the above environments, the food abundance is very poor and cannot support large fish, and these small fish rely on their small size and low energy requirements to survive tenaciously. "

"It is precisely because of this that we don't need a very good fishing rod, a branch is enough."

While speaking, Bifang pulled up the branch, and a small fish that was only the size of a palm hung on it, constantly flapping its tail.

"Tilapia, the most common fish in the Sahara Desert, it seems that its underground is indeed connected in all directions. "

[Hiss, there are really fish!]

[Fishing in the desert, you are good at it]

[You are the one who returns it]

[Will the fish in the desert taste better?]

[No, it will be more expensive]

Bifang took it off, put it in the Loukuang, hung the fruit on the fishhook, and continued to throw it into the pool.

Waiting for the afternoon, Alpha stopped eating, and Bifang also had a good harvest, eating a grilled fish dinner at night.

The next day, Alpha continued to eat, chewing monotonously with a big mouth, as if he would never get tired, like a ruthless grass-eating machine.

Bifang touched Alpha's hump and found that it had basically recovered, which showed that it had almost stopped.

Finally filling the kettle with water, Bifang took Alpha, who was still eating, away, rode on his back, and continued to move forward.

There was a vast desert under his feet, and a vast blue sky without a trace of color above his head. The sky and the vast desert merged into a line at the distant edge.

Mali has become the background. Perhaps tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, they will reach the next country.