Hey guys, estebangc I wasn't directing it at you personally I was remarking on how things are so often directed to the negative... (even my statement seemed to go that way)... I recall in Sudan, I was faced with a similar situation of going 2 ways:
1) 1000km down the Nile on sealed roads to Khartoum scattered with towns.
2) cross the Nubian desert across sand with no roads, no water, no towns no nothing... first town is ~300km away at an estimated 2-3 days ride....
I regret doing the pussy thing and riding the roads. I met my friends a week later in Khartoum, and I felt rather sappy about it, missing out on the Sudanese pyramids etc.
Of course the story is a slightly more complicated than that, there was an injury amongst the people I was travelling with and we split ways, I went with the injured and stayed "safe".
More about that here
You can see my similar dilemma with this coming trip, is the Darién Gap another ~Nubian Desert~ or is it a a pointless mission of ego.