The sun was at its highest point of the day as it mercilessly beat down on the caravan of weary travellers. Journeying by camel had taken three days already and there was still a good day ahead of them. The trail was only visible to the dark eyes of their guide. Having grown up in these barren lands, the shifting dunes were old friends waving their greeting as he drove on through the hundreds of miles of sand.

Sitting atop a camel did not come naturally to Seb, despite years of horse riding in his youth. The decision to take two months off work, to leave his family and friends, to throw himself into this endeavor was not an easy one but he had to do it. For twenty years he had roamed statue lined museum corridors, buried himself under mounds of text books researching the true origins of the ancient text he had to find. His obsession had taken family holidays away from the usual Spanish coastline or French camp grounds. Instead he dragged his weary wife and children to remote villages at the furthest corners of the world in the hope of finding the holder of those treasured letters.

His guide pulled the camels rope reins hard causing the caravan to stop. The raised arm which had been protecting the sun from his scarred eyes extended out to point to a shimmering dot on the horizon.

“Is that is?’ Seb cried eagerly. “Tell me that’s it”

His parched and crusted lips trembled as he squinted to see the distant village. “How far?”

“One day” the guide responded solemnly.

“Surely we can make it there by night fall?” Seb replied.

“No, we must shelter. The camels need water and the winds are changing. A storm may be coming.”

“But we are so close”

The guide dropped from his seat and pulled his steed towards the ground. “We stop here”.

Reluctantly Seb dismounted and joined his guide in setting up cover. Why was it such slow progress? His treasure was nearly within reach, he could not bear it.

The winds did indeed whip up and within an hour they were partially submerged in a drift that had appeared from nowhere. The guide fought to secure their cover for four hours before the gods of the dunes relented and ceased their bombardment. By nightfall all was calm again and having eaten a sparse meal, Seb settled in to his bed, keen to get an early night for a long and emotional day tomorrow. He pulled out his battered journal and a pen and entered his daily confession:

We are so close, I can feel that this is the right place. This is the right time. I will have the ancient writing by tomorrow, patience. I know people think I am crazy but they will see…they will see when I have the most treasured papers in the world.