ANSA Italian adventurer Stevani Miglietti hopes to complete a 550-kilometer (345-mile) trek across the Sahara - the first person on record to cross the region on foot. Miglietti is due at the Siwa oasis in Egypt to complete his crossing of the Great Sand Sea, an area so harsh that it is avoided by Tuareg desert nomads, the Italian news agency ANSA reports. Miglietti, 37, lugged a 90-kilo (200-pound) cart stocked with food and water for the crossing. He had a seven-day supply.
"The mystery surrounding this journey has always fascinated me," said Miglietti before he set off on January 20. "Everyone tells me it's practically impossible. But I don't have to prove anything to anyone but myself, so I'll have a go."
Miglietti, a former skier and mountaineer, planned to walk as much as 20 hours a day. He called his wife on Monday by satellite phone to say that he had completed half the journey.
"He's thinking about ditching his cart, putting his remaining supplies into a rucksack and starting to run," she told ANSA. In 2003 Miglietti became the first man to cross the Murzuq Desert in Libya and set a record in 2005 for crossing the Yukon Arctic Ultra. |