Finally, only the woman was left. She described her last days in her journal, which Langewiesche later read. Their harrowing deaths stayed with me for days. I asked Langewiesche why the Algerian government couldn't help locate the lost tourists. You can't imagine the size of the desert.
People go out there and make a slight wrong turn and get lost.
Plus, there are no phones, electricity or radios. Langewiesche travels alone, relying on friends and acquaintances to put him in touch with locals. He tries to be as anonymous as possible, wearing his hair neither too long nor too short, not wearing blue jeans nor carrying a backpack, but dressing unobtrusively. He uses public transportation and doesn't travel with an assistant or photographer. He finds the very idea of pack journalism abhorrent.