Hiking in the desert is essential to ensure adequate hydration. However, in the desert, there is no guarantee that water can be replenished from the outside world, so it is possible to reduce the water intake by reducing the loss of water in the body by saving the country by curves.

1. It is best to wear it in accordance with the dark underwear + light-colored jacket mentioned above, in addition to sun protection, it can also ensure air circulation, and can prevent sweat from evaporating quickly in a short period of time and causing dehydration.

2. For exposed parts of the skin, such as hands and face, gloves and bandanas can be wrapped on the head after wetting with wet wipes, which can effectively cool down and reduce sweat evaporation.

3. During the hike, control the pace, don't walk too tired, and be sure to breathe through your nose instead of your mouth. Breathing through the nose can effectively reduce the evaporation and loss of body fluids caused by breathing.

4. During the hike, take a small sip of water in your mouth, so that the inhaled air can be cooled by the water and then enter the lungs, which can reduce the loss of body fluid in the lungs.

5. When drinking water, be sure to drink in small sips, not in large gulps. 「

2. Another danger in desert trekking comes from identifying directions. Because most deserts are flat and there are no reference objects to identify the direction of walking, it is easy to spin in place or deviate from the original route during the hike. Lost in the desert, many novices panic and don't know what to do because of their psychological quality. This is a big no-no outdoors. Although the direction can be determined by the compass and GPS, the accuracy of the compass will be reduced due to the large mineral deposits in the desert; the GPS consumes a lot of power, and the whole process can not be opened to determine the direction, and some strong magnetic environments may have signal loss or can not work normally (although the probability of this situation is very small, but still be prepared for plan B) to introduce some "soil methods" to identify the direction.

1. Insert the cane vertically into the ground and place a stone (or other object) at the top of the shadow, and then another stone at the top of the shadow after 15 minutes. The straight line formed by the two stones is the east-west direction, and the vertical line is the north-south direction. (If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, you are facing due north if you put your left foot on the first stone and your right foot on the second stone; in the Southern Hemisphere you are facing due north).

2. The desert is windy, and the sand will be blown out of wavy wrinkles, so keep the same angle as the ripples when moving forward. (However, you should always judge the direction of the wind.)

3. Look back every few minutes to see if the footprint is a straight line, which can be combined with method 2 to make sure you don't deviate.

If you're hiking in a rocky desert area, set up a rock pile or something with bright colors every few minutes (similar to 2 and 3) and see if you're in a straight line with the two rocks behind you.

3. In addition, there are also quicksands, sandstorms, floods, etc., but these encounters are unlikely, but they should not be underestimated. Ask your local guide if there is any recent possibility of bad weather before you go.

Fourth, other tips

1. Identify the time of sunset, put your index finger at the bottom of the sun, and count the number of fingers from the bottom of the sun to the horizon. Each finger represents 15 minutes, for example, there are 4 fingers from the bottom of the sky to the horizon, which means that there is 1 hour left until sunset.

2. It's best to act early in the morning or at night

3. Don't go straight up and down when crossing the dunes, choosing a cross-cut will save a lot of physical strength.

The desert is vast, there are few markers, it is easy to get lost day or night, and it is not allowed for a single or a small number of people to leave the group to move freely. Keep plenty of drinking water with you and build a good relationship with the camels, which are your most trusted friends in the desert.

Outdoor Desert Precautions – Prepare Early:

Camping in the wilderness and sleeping in the open must be psychologically prepared to endure hardships. It is necessary to carry forward the spirit of solidarity and mutual assistance, and to make concerted efforts to overcome difficulties together. Desert adventure tourism is a collective activity, collective labor is an important part of tourism, tour guides, camel workers, tourists three aspects to be sincere unity, taking into account the overall situation, tourism activities can be icing on the cake.

Precautions for outdoor sand - proper protection:

In the desert, there is a large temperature difference between day and night, and the sun during the day will make people's skin red and swollen, and the night will be as cold as winter. So prepare both summer and winter clothing. In addition, after sunscreen oil is applied to the body, it will stick to the sand and make the skin very uncomfortable, so it is better to wear a light-colored long coat to resist ultraviolet rays, and the face can use sunscreen oil appropriately.

Outdoor Desert Considerations – Fully Equipped:

The sand is loose and it is advisable to wear high-top travel shoes. In the summer, the reflection in the desert is more severe, and wearing sunglasses with UV protection can help protect the eyes.

Outdoor Desert Considerations – Dealing with Sandstorms:

In the event of a sandstorm in the desert, do not take shelter on the leeward slope of the dunes, otherwise you risk being suffocated or buried by the sandstorm. The correct thing to do is to lead the camel to the windward slope and hide behind the camel.

When riding a camel, it is necessary to prevent the camel from throwing the person off when standing up and lying down, and at this time it is necessary to hold the saddle or hump tightly. Do not usually go near the camel's hind feet and head to prevent it from kicking and spraying people with its mouth. Although the camel is docile, it is dangerous when frightened, so it is necessary to prevent sudden noises such as sudden shouts and harsh colors such as suddenly opening a colorful automatic umbrella to provoke the camel.

Don't be nervous about long-distance camel rides, but ride naturally with the pace of the camel, adjust your sitting position at any time, and walk down at the right time.

Outdoor Desert Precautions - Environmental Awareness:

Don't forget that the desert is also a part of the earth, and we should also be environmentally conscious in the desert, and try to take the garbage out of the desert, or at least bury it on the spot, otherwise our children and grandchildren may see the desert one day when they open the door.

1. Adequate pre-departure preparation

Expedition is always associated with danger, but careful planning and meticulous preparation will minimize the risk, which is also the confidence of explorers to survive in difficult situations.

1. The choice of the adventure season

China's deserts are mostly distributed in the northwest region, belong to the dry climate zone, the temperature difference between day and night is large, the summer is very hot, the temperature is as high as 50~60 degrees Celsius, the winter is very cold, the temperature is as low as minus 20~30 degrees Celsius; the rainfall is very small, the annual precipitation in most areas is less than 250 mm; the wind is many and strong, especially in the tuyere area, when the wind comes, the sand and rocks are flying, the desert from Inner Mongolia to Xinjiang has seasonal strong winds in April every year, and often forms sand flows. Given these climatic characteristics, the hot summer and windy seasons should be avoided when choosing an adventure season, usually between September and March.

2. Develop routes and tactics

When formulating expedition routes and tactics, it is first necessary to respect objective facts and formulate an expedition plan within the limits of life safety.

Fully self-guided desert safari

The principle behind such expeditions is to explore the desert to a limited extent, either entirely on their own or in collective cooperation. For example, in the winter expedition of the Taklamakan Desert, the average temperature during the day is about minus 10 degrees, and the average explorer can not carry all the equipment, food, and water to survive in the desert for more than 7 days, and the marching distance is about 100 kilometers. Since this is a fully self-guided desert expedition, the explorer has to carry all the equipment and supplies when he sets off, and the first day is to walk under high weight, which poses a severe test of the explorer's physical strength and perseverance.

Collaborative desert exploration

Collaborative expeditions can be divided into unbacked and backed up. No backup means that after entering the desert, they lose all the support of manpower and material resources in the rear, and only go deep into the sand sea with the cooperation of camel caravans, and most expeditions adopt this method. But this kind of expedition is also limited, because the camel in the desert weight can not exceed 200 kg, in winter, the camel every 7 ~ 10 days also to drink water, a water volume is also about 100 kg, so the general number of expedition days should be controlled within 10 days, the journey within 100 ~ 200 kilometers. Backed up desert exploration is suitable for long-distance desert crossing, which belongs to the "large corps coordinated operation" and costs a lot of money. For example, in the early 90s, two joint Sino-Japanese and Sino-British expeditions crossed the Taklamakan Desert. With the cooperation of camel teams, the small-scale crossing team crossed 100 kilometers east and west along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, and several support teams used hundreds of camels to start from the national highway on the southern edge of the desert and drop supplies every 150 kilometers to the depth of the desert 100 kilometers.

2. The sand sea marches

1. Correctly judging the direction Walking on the vast desert, because the field of vision is empty, it is difficult to find a reference for orientation, plus the undulating sand dunes, tall sand mountains and depressions, people generally cannot walk in a straight line, so the correct judgment of the direction in the desert march is a prerequisite for desert exploration.

Use the instrument to determine the direction

Orienting with a compass and a map was a common method used in early desert explorations, which first knew where you were located, determined the location and azimuth of the target area according to the map, and then traveled according to the azimuth pointed by the compass. Since it is impossible to march in a straight line in the desert, it is necessary to constantly correct the orientation when using this method, otherwise it will be difficult to reach the intended goal. In long-distance desert expeditions and traversal, it is very difficult to reach the destination accurately or find pre-loaded supplies in the vast sea of sand. In the late 80s, the popularity of personal satellite navigation systems (GPS) in the civil society minimized the possibility of getting lost in the desert, and almost all desert expeditions now use GPS navigation.

Use natural features to determine direction

Bearing with the North Star The North Star is a brighter star in the sky due north, and when it is found at night, it finds due north. Polaris is the star of Ursa Minor, and the constellations Ursa Major (mainly the Big Dipper) and Cassiopeia are located on either side of Polaris. China is located in the northern hemisphere, and the North Star can be seen all year round on Chinese New Year's Eve.

Using the Sun to Determine Direction The sun rises in the east and sets in the west as the most reliable "north arrow". The sun moves from east to west, while the shadow moves from west to east. For example, in the desert in the western part of our country, in the morning, the sun rises in the east, and the shadows of all objects are turned to the west, and at noon the sun is due south and the shadow points to the north, and in the afternoon, the sun is due west and the shadow points due east. Uyghur camel workers who have lived around the Taklamakan Desert for generations rely on this method to walk in the desert and never lose their way. Of course, there are some more accurate methods for determining the direction, such as the "immediate effect" method and the watch judgment method, which are very useful in desert exploration (see "Outdoor Adventure", No. 10, 2002, p.65).

Wind is an important factor in shaping the ground morphology of deserts, in northwest China, due to the prevailing northwest wind, sand dunes generally form a southeast direction, and the northwest side of sand dunes is a windward side, with a small slope and hard sand. The southeast side is leeward, with a steep slope and soft sand. In addition, the plants in the desert, such as red willow, saxon, camel thorn, etc., all slope to the southeast. However, it should be noted that these are the general characteristics of desert areas, and the wind direction varies from region to region, and the direction of the sand dunes is also different, so it is necessary to know the meteorology and geomorphology of the target area in advance to make a correct judgment.

2. Learn to walk in the desert

Choose a pair of shoes that fit

If you want to walk comfortably in the desert, you have to prepare a pair of suitable shoes, the soles of which are too soft, and it is very uncomfortable to walk in the desert, and it will be very uncomfortable for your feet for a long time. Sand jackets (snow covers) are indispensable, and once sand gets into your shoes, your feet will be worn out in a short time.

Learn to walk with a cane

Marching in the desert with heavy loads and climbing up and down over soft sand dunes puts a lot of pressure on the knees and can easily cause injuries. Walking with a cane reduces the strain on your knees and saves a lot of energy.