Hmm - reminds me of a service engineer for my dad's firm years ago, he was very proud of his shiny new van. Then he managed to find the only telegraph pole in a 200 acre field whilst reversing!
I was once being driven through Finland by (unsurprisingly) a Finnish business colleague. He told me that there had been big news in the press, the previous week. A car had come off the road and had NOT hit a tree.
If you've ever been to Finland, you'll understand how remarkable that was.
The Tree of Ténéré was the last of a group of trees that grew when the desert was less parched than it is today. The tree had stood alone for decades. During the winter of 1938–1939 a well was dug near the tree and it was found that the roots of the tree reached the water table 33–36 meters (108 to 118 feet) below the surface.
The Tree of Ténéré was knocked down by an allegedly drunk Libyan truck driver in 1973. On November 8, 1973, the dead tree was moved to the Niger National Museum in the capital Niamey (the only tree for over 200 miles!)