Michael Benanav > Quotes

“Camels can go many weeks without drinking anything at all. The notion that they cache water in their humps is pure myth—their humps are made of fat, and water is stored in their body tissues. While other mammals draw water from bloodstreams when faced with dehydration, leading to death by volume shock, camels tap the water in their tissues, keeping their blood volume stable. Though this reduces the camel’s bulk, they can lose up to a third of their body weight with no ill effects, which they can replace astonishingly quickly, as they are able to drink up to forty gallons in a single watering.” (pp.69-70)”
― Michael Benanav, Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold

“You travel faster alone, but farther together.”
― Michael Benanav, Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold

“I'd been deeply affected by my contact with the miners, not only because of their kindness, but because they'd taken this potentially hellish place and made it, if not heaven, at least human; through their simple rituals of eating, drinking tea, smoking tobacco, praying, playing, and talking, they'd created civilization in one of the most impossible places to imagine it. And what seemed like a miracle to me was, to them, just another day at work!”
― Michael Benanav, Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold

“In order to slip from beneath the crushing weight of future thoughts, I adopted a technique of focusing solely on the moment I was living. In itself, removed from the time line that stretched forward and backward from the present, no single moment was that bad.”
― Michael Benanav, Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold