Sheltering from summer sun in the desert
 

I appreciate that summer in the desert is to be avoided, but I may have to cross a desert in the US or Iran or Australia in the summer by bicycle on a RTW trip. I haven't done this before, but I have been advised to seek shelter from the sun in the middle of the day and cycle when it's cooler, perhaps at night. Which means sleeping in my tent in the daytime when the ground temp could be 60 degrees C or more. Would this be disastrous? My tent is grey nylon and very spacious with a full size mesh door on each side and vents at the top. I read on another forum that the tent might melt and I should use a thick tarp above the tent to keep the sun off it.

All advice welcome. No need to tell me to keep out of the desert in the summer. I will try to do that. But I want to be prepared in case I am caught out.

Depends where you're heading, but there's usually at least some natural shade to be found if you look. Never heard of a tent melting in the sun, but who knows!

A heavy tarp is perfect for shade but obviously useless for bicycle travel. Your best bet might be one of the lightweight reflective blankets attached to your tent - only a few grammes and very effective. You'd have to devise some secure way of attaching it if you're heading anywhere windy.

Sure, I'll look for shade. But I understand in parts of Oz there's none to be had.

I was going to use a space blanket and lay it over the tent. But I was told this would have an oven effect!

space blanket
 

I think this would be fine, but probably better if there is aaiir gap between the two layers. the reflective surface should give 'cool' shade.

Hi,

Rather than melting nylon, I think you should worry more about the amount of water you would have to carry in order to sustain you in such temteratures.

use whatever you've got to create shade, but don't trap air underneath it in a tent. a tunnel-style flysheet would be better. or, easier(?) drape the space blanket over the bike to create a tunnel
I used a single-entrance dome tent in Oz and despite reasonable ventilation, it got so hot that I couldn't pick metal things up off the floor (70C?) - I wasn't in it or I'd have cooked!
I agree carrying enough water will be the main issue. I'd allow for 5 litres or more per day in that sort of heat.

Lots of modern tents can be used without the inner tent, just the fly - that would give the best ventilation, and shade. IN a tent is hopeless - you'd cook for sure. You need air and shade. You might even find a wing tarp is all you need. See http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tri...ment/tents.php

Also even 5 litres cycling doesn't sound like near enough. Dehydration is the biggest killer in Oz, and until you experience the heat it's hard to comprehend just how hot it really is. Tourists are OFTEN caught out and die in the desert, and they're usually in 4wd's.

You don't say when or exactly where you're going, but I think bicycling a desert track in Oz solo in summer is somewhere around suicidal. Paved roads, maybe, but winter would make a LOT more sense. Think carefully - we'd like to hear from you again!

My tent is a single skinned Puppy Pile Too custom made with an extra door. http://www.mandatorygear.com/index.p...emart&Itemid=1 With both doors open it is more like a tunnel than a tent. With a space blanket pitched above it - using the bike as a 'pole' - do you think it will still be too hot to get in? If not I could construct a tunnel using the tent fabric, space blanket, poles and bike. The tunnel could be some distance above my body so no air would be trapped.

As for water, if I cycle 16 miles in an hour at 104F/40C I use 2 litres. So to cover 100 miles in a day (on roads, not tracks) in the outback I'll need 13 litres for the cycling portion of the day and 4 litres for the rest of it. For a safety margin it's best to round it up to 20 litres. That's not hard to carry with a trailer. This is how one cyclist did the Canning Stock Route: http://www.wildworks.co.nz/csr/route.php

I don't yet know the max distance between water sources on the roads I'm intending to use. There are wells and water tanks but I've read they can't be relied on; the only reliable water sources are roadhouses. Some of them are huge distances apart. I need to find out exactly where they are before I know what's feasible. The trailer is only rated to carry 30 l. The bike can carry 15 l. Theoretically the total of 45 l is more than enough for 300 miles (two days, 150 miles per day) in extreme heat. It may not sound like fun to many people
but it would certainly be an adventure. I've never cycled in more than 40 C but I really enjoyed it. Probably reminded me of growing up in Abu Dhabi. Having said that I did go for a short walk in the midday sun in mid-summer near Ayers Rock, without a hat or water or anything, and the heat was scary. I think I would have been in serious trouble in less than an hour. Had a similar experience in southern India once too. Still, it's better than being too cold if you ask me.

I'll be on main roads. Even in summer there is always a little traffic so I could get help in an emergency.

Still sounds too hot! ANY trapped air heats up very fast. Why not just the space blanket for shade?

Tidbit: Kangaroos hide in the shade in the hottest part of the day, and lick their arms to cool themselves. Go through a lot of liquid, but it keeps them from overheating and getting heatstroke.

Remember, they are extremely well adapted to the heat - you aren't.

Is that ONE hour, or hour after hour tested? Sounds light to me. What you can get away with for one or two hours is NOT the same as many consecutive hours.

always remember - what if you break a wheel, or worse, a leg? Then how long till someone finds you, and how long will your water and food last? Travelling in the outback with "just enough" supplies is to often fatal.

A "little" traffic in Aus can be once a week. "light" can be one or two a month.

It's certainly doable - depending on how well you plan - just plan for all contingencies, and do a test ride or two on easy roads in the outback before you try anything more remote - when it hit's 50 it's past hot... 45-50 is incomprehensible till you've experienced it.

I still do NOT recommend cycling in the outback summer off main, paved roads. There's always someone that's done it, but there's too many that didn't make it.

Looking at your tent I'd have to agree with Grant on the trapped air issue. Check out some desert nomad tents for inspiration.

A space blanket might be too flimsy on it's own, you could combine it with the (flattened) tent material and guy rope it to your bike to create a lean-to with underflow...

...that would work but it begs the question why take a $500 tent at all?

Maybe stitch a spaceblanket to a top sheet and take a seperate mozzie net? Whole thing will cost about £40.

There are a few problems with trying to operate in a climate like this, even if you are acclimatised. The hottest I have experienced is a little over 60C and it is grim.
Physically you are hard pushed to actually consume enough water. I remember when I first arrived in the middle east at 4 in the morning. I carried my kit (about 60kg) all of 300m from the plane to the coach, then necked 3 litres of water in the next hour. I was certain that come daylight I would actually just melt into the ground, if not before! and that was in the middle of the night remember!
your estimates of consumption (20L per day) maybe about right as a minimum, who knows? but there is a real risk of renal failure if you ask your kidneys to process that kind of quantity of fluid for any kind of sustained (or not!) period.
There used to be a saying in the military, 'pee clear twice a day'. experience showed that to drink enough to pee clear in extremes of heat would give you kidney failure. You should aim to pee orange. If you achieve this you will pee lots! even though it is concentrated once your body had processed the waste it will get rid of it and that means frequent visits to the toilet, even at night (I thought my prostate had turned into a football!!). Even then you still risk kidney failure trying to consume that kind of quantity of water.

other than water consumption there is the simple matter of the heat. 40C is only a little above body temp (37C) 50+ is well above. without some way of cooling yourself you will get heatstroke. don't kid yourself that once out of the midday period it will be cooler, sure it's cooler than the 60C at mid day, but it's still bloody hot!
Then there is the wind. In the summer months very strong winds develop in the desert due to convection current. These winds don't cool you, they cook you, they are so hot it almost hurts. of course if it is anything other than behind you it will also increase the amount of work you have to do and significantly lengthen your journey time. The whole notion of having cooling air blowing through your tent is arse, there is no such thing in the desert in summer. All you can hope is that it doesn't get as hideously hot as it might if it was enclosed.

oh, and also you won't be able to sleep in the day, it's too hot, you will just lay there frying, sweating and drinking more water. Actually you may not sweat, one of the bizzare things about this kind of heat is that you appear not to sweat. I think you probably do but it evaporates so fast you don't notice. only as it cools do you start noticably sweating.

Also you will need to protect your skin from the heat of anything metal you may touch, so you will probably need gloves, thin leather seems to be best.

IMHO cycling through the desert in the summer, without vast resources, logistical and medical backup, is suicidal, even if you don't develop somesort of D&V bug, if you do, I wouldn't give you more than 2 days to live without serious help, assuming you are just monging in your tent. on your bike you won't survive the day.

sorry if this seems like a doom munger, but all my experience working as a medic in very hot places shouts that this is a really bad idea!

Andy
TLCH60
landy101ambie/camper
1968 morris minor traveller
www.plymouth-dakar.com

Thanks for taking the trouble to give me such specific info - very interesting. Trying to work out a plan for my trip which avoids summer in Nevada, the Middle East and Oz, as well as cold weather in Europe and Newfoundland. Hmm. Much head-scratching required. This is all a bit OT to motorized travellers in the Sahara so I'll go back to my atlas.

Nevada is not that hot. The highest temp recorded was 25c, that was near Las Vegas. Up north in Reno the highest was 42c.
Most of the time its cooler. Lot of mountains in the state, 150 mountain ranges.
Its not flat.

Hi Eurostar!

I agree with John, the desert in Nevada is not your worst constraint.

I meet a guy named Holger in La Posta in Argentina. He rode with a bicycle in Australia where the temperature was 65c!!! Try to contact him at www.biketraveller.de Maybe he could help you to stay alive overthere!

Patrick

Bring an unbrella... ...and a turban.

I have travel by bicycle in desert in different part in the world and i have done more than 20 000 km in the desert. I don't have anything with me to protect from the sun. During the day it's to hot to stay in a tent and the best thing is to find a tree or stay in a tunnel under the road. If you can't find any shelter it's better to ride so you get a bigger distance between you and the hot ground/road and also that your are moving. It's hot in USA and Iran in June to August and in Australia it's hot December to Februari.

Don't forget the water, then it's hot you'll need around 20 litre or more each day. Don't be stupied and bring only 15 litre...

Cross Nullarbor/Australia in May-June, cold 30 degrees 2000
Cross Kazakhstan Aug-Sept, OK 40-45 degrees 2002
Cross Uzbekistan April, OK 40 deegrees 2003
Cross Taklamakan/China July-Aug, hot 55 degrees 2003
Cross Middle East /Syria, Jordan July-Aug, Hot 45-50 degrees 2004
Cross Sahara /Egypt, Sudan March-April, Hot 45-65 degrees 2005
Cross Sahara /Marocco, Mauritania Aug-Sept, OK 40-45 degrees 2005
Cross Sahara /N. Mali, N. Niger April/May, Hot 45-55 degrees 2006

I'm now in Agadez and it's hot and sunny...

http://www.sandstorm.se/bilder/kina_...i_2003_07s.jpg From China
http://www.sandstorm.se/bilder/mauri...r_2005_03s.jpg From Mauritania
http://www.sandstorm.se/bilder/syrie...r_2004_08s.jpg From Syria
http://www.sandstorm.se/bilder/jorda...r_2004_20s.jpg From Jordan
http://www.sandstorm.se/bilder/sudan...d_2005_14s.jpg From Sudan
http://www.sandstorm.se/sahara/mali_photo/383_s.jpg From Mali

/Stellan

www.sandstorm.se Press "Bilder" to find more photos

Send e-mail if you want to know more stellan@ghdata.nu