Shelter food and fire

Make a shelter from the sun and rest in the shade. You'll also need protection from winds and low night temperatures.

Do Not stay in a metal vehicle or airplane which may rapidly become overheated. Use it to support a shelter or make use of the shadow beneath an aircraft's wing.

Make use of rock outcrops and the shadow provided by the sides of a wadi . In a sand desert you may even be able to use wreckage to make a shelter beneath the sand.

Many desert creatures spend the day beneath the surface, where he day temperature is much lower and night much warmer than outside. Sand will not permit tunneling and you have to make a support structure.

Having provided immediate shade, build your shelter in the cool of the evening to conserve energy and fluids. Pile rocks to make a windbreak and make use of wadi walls(except when rain,and consequent flash floods seem likely). If using fabrics, leave the bottom edges lifted and loose by day to increase air circulation. Weight them down with rocks at night. Avoid lying directly on hot ground. If you make a raised bed air can circulate beneath you.

You will need a fire for warmth at night, and for boiling water. Smoke will also be very noticeable and useful for signaling. Desert scrub is dry and burns easily. If the land is totally barren, vehicle fuel and oil mixed with sand in a container will burn well (and is an easy way to light other fires) or use a string wick. Camel, donkey and other animal droppings burn well.

Food for desert survival

Food spoils very quickly in the desert and any stores, once opened, should be eaten straight away or kept covered and shaded. Flies appear from nowhere and settle on your uncovered food.

Food

Heat usually produces a loss of appetite- so do not force yourself to eat. Protein foods increase metabolic heat and increase water loss and liquids are needed for digestion. If water is scarce, keep eating to a minimum and then try to eat only moisture- containing foods, such as fruits and vegetables.

Animals for desert survival

Deserts often support a variety of animal life which borrows into the sand or hides in any available shade during the day.

Insects, reptiles, small rodents and specially adapted mammals such as the Fennec Fox of North Africa, the Australian Bandicoot, a hedgehog in the Gobi and the Jack Rabbit of North America- all of which have big ears to act as cooling aids. There are geckoes, lizards and snakes. Tortoises and amphibians survive from when these were once well-watered lands.

The Sahara has gerbils and gerboas ; the Middle East, Caracals and Hyenas. In the Kalahari there is a squirrel that uses its tail for shade. There are even Gazelles that manage to get all the moisture they need from the sap of leaves, though most large mammals are an indication that there is a water supply within daily reach of their grazing areas. Birds feathers give them good insulation against heat and many live and breed long distances from there water supplies- such as the road runner of Arizona.

Plants

Vegetation, away from oases and waterholes, is likely to be litle more than scrub and grasses- even in the semi desert- but grasses are edible and sometimes plentiful. The Acacia tree in the scrub provides edible beans. Beware of the Acacias thorns but try all its soft parts: flowers, fruit, seeds, bark and the young shoots. The grasses of the Sahara and the Gobi are neither nutritious nor palatable, but in the Sahara and the Asian deserts you may find the desert ground, a member of the Squash family. Its vine can run over the ground for 4.5m(15ft). Chew its water-filled shoots and eat its flowers and orange-sized fruits, the seeds of which are edible roasted or boiled. The Mescal plant (an Agave from which tequila is made) of the Mexican desert, grows with a rosette of thick, tough, sharp-tipped, grows with a rosette of thick, tough, sharp-tipped leaves. Its central stalk, which rises like a candle to a flowering head, can be eaten. Cut the ends of the leaves to suck out water.

Eye protection

Sunglasses or goggles will help- though many made for use in temperate climes may offer insufficient protection. Soot from the fire smeared below the eyes will reduce glare reflected from the skin. Shield the eyes from glare and windborne sand with a strip of material. Cut narrow slits to see through.

Footwear

Do not walk barefoot on hot sand until your feet have become hardened. It will burn and cause blisters. Do not wear sandals which leave the top of the foot exposed. Improvise coverings if you have none. Putees will help keep sand out of boots or could be extended to wrap round the foot over open sandals.