Day One
For the sake of those who may some day read this journal, let me begin by giving a brief account of our histories thus far. Three days ago, I, two other geologists, and our pilot were flying from El Aaiun to Marrakach aboard a Cessna 172 belonging to our employer. Through circumstances yet unknown, our small plane made a crash landing somewhere along the western border of the Sahara Desert; I remember watching the High Atlas Mountains to our left shortly before we crashed. Upon landing, we suffered significant loss. Our pilot, Jon Tinker, a better pilot I’ve never known, suffered a severe impact to his head and was breathing but unresponsive. He died on our second day after the crash. Ken Kaulfield was dead before we even found his body, buried and crushed beneath the piles of surveying equipment. Daniel Griff and myself (Cliff Salverick) survived the landing remarkably well, I with but a fractured wrist and Daniel with mere cuts and bruises. The radio and nearly all our equipment had been ruined in the crash. We were, however, pleasantly surprised to find plenty of stored water and a few cases of dried fruit.
