Safety is one of the crucial priorities to consider when embarking on a survival trip. But sometimes, it may be far-fetched because of the wider dangers and intensity involved. As a beginner or expert survivalist, understanding the essential tips for desert survival can help you avoid the various risks of desert trips. So, here are four essential desert survival tips that can keep you safe if you intend on taking a trip anywhere among the vast arid stretches of the world.
1. Get Under a Shade
Finding a shade or building a shelter is one of the crucial priorities of desert survival. It prevents exposure to the sun, reduces dehydration levels, conserves water, and reduces the tendency to cold during the night. You can easily build a shelter or shade using shrubs or cactus or stay under an already built one such as a ravine or a rock outcropping.
If you can’t find a shelter or build one, you can always come with a big hat or other coverings that can prevent the direct contact of the sun on your head. And if you’re caught without a covering for your head, you can easily utilize other pieces of clothing for wrapping your head. You can also fashion a hat from available materials if your skills are up for it.
2. Preserve Your Water
It’s often advisable to preserve your water and not just guzzle it immediately after you get thirsty in the desert. You can adopt a better tactic by taking small sips throughout your day. To figure out when to drink water, you can easily examine your hydration level by looking at the color of your urine. If the color of your urine is light-colored, you’re good. But if it’s dark-colored, you’ll need to drink some water.
If you eventually come across water in the desert, it’s important to be cautious, as this water may not be suitable for drinking. Taking contaminated water can squander the little water in your body as you experience frequent vomiting or diarrhea. If you have the required skill to purify water, you can easily use it to sustain yourself in the desert.
3. Be strategic in food consumption.
The more food you eat, the thirstier you’ll get. So, it’s advisable to take only a nibble that’ll be enough to keep you from the pains of hunger and can boost your energy. But, if you don’t have water or any source to get one in the desert, you’ll do much better not to eat anything in the meantime. You can survive much longer without food than you can without water, and the last thing you want to do in the desert is increasing your thirst.
4. Track Your Steps
If you decide on taking a desert trip, be sure to track your direction and location of travel using rocks, sticks, or a piece of clothing. You can also leave a message behind for anyone who might stumble across it.
Before embarking on your desert trip, you can take a sighting of a distant object or landmark in the direction you’re heading. And then, use that object or landmark to keep yourself on track. You can also place items at strategic places and positions for anyone who intends to take your kind of trip.