With rolling Saharan dunes and palm sprouting oases in the midst of the sweeping Sahel, earthy Bedouin villages and camel-saddled traders, endless slabs of grass-swaying savanna plains and acacia-dotted plateaus, Chad certainly is beautiful. Unfortunately, it’s also something of a poisoned apple. Problems within stem from years of political upheaval: coups, counter-coups, religiously-motivated civil wars. Problems without come from fanatical terror groups and ethnic tensions spilling across from Darfur and Syria. Chad, for all intents and purposes, remains in lockdown for the traveler.

Perhaps one day the conflicts and tumult will cease though, and then there will be Chad tour guides at the ready. Waiting with tickets to the wild and untrodden reaches of the Zakouma National Park, home to some of the most endangered elephant herds in Central Africa. Waiting with cultural encounters with the caravan peoples of the wild Ennedi desert. Waiting with intrepid excursions into the Sahara, where crocs snap and sand billows over the shifting hills.