I never really enjoyed staying in Tripoli. I much preferred being in the desert. We used a variety of methods for our Libyan commute but in most cases it involved a Land Rover somewhere along the route.
Strangely, the first crew I was assigned to on my return to Libya was again on the western border with Algeria, not too far from where I'd last worked before my brush with the law.
Our camps usually had landing strips marked out close to the camp but sometimes the terrain was too rough. Other times we'd fly to a town or oil installation and meet the crew driver there for the last leg of the journey while yet other times we'd ride all the way from Tripoli or Benghazi in a Land Rover on one of our supply trucks.
While I was there, none of our vehicles had air conditioning. I recall one crew member commenting on this one day so the mechanics removed his doors. This just made it worse as now the sand and gravel got into the cabin.
Truth of the matter was, air conditioners added complexity and maintenance cost. You just had to tough it out and get hot. Fortunately, unless it rained (which I only experienced twice in four years), there was no humidity. I find dry heat much more tolerable than humid heat. The danger is, of course, you don't know how much you're sweating as it evaporates immediately. Thus, you take to judging by the color of your urine as to how dehydrated you are. And of course, if you're not peeing every couple of hours, you're probably in trouble but don't yet know it.
I only remember a couple of cases of heat exhaustion and no cases of heat stroke during my time in Libya.
Sadly, Libya is a much changed place now following the war and I suspect it will be many years before it becomes as safe again as it was in the early 1990's.
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