"Better hope someone's got a good lead, then. Dunno how far he can really get in all that desert, but it's the sort of place a person could vanish and never be found," he grumbles.

Yeah, so he's frustrated with the situation. Can't help it. It's so hard to make progress in these situations and so the best he's left with is to fight on and hope someone else will pick up that orb eventually without them all getting scattered to the wind and sands.