How far is too far?

When I first heard mention of the plan, my reaction was one of bemused horror & deep cynicism. Why would anyone want to walk sixty kilometers across stony desert & soft sand dunes? Why would anyone attempt to do it in two days? Yet, the idea of walking the breadth of Qatar has a romantic feel to it &, as the time drew closer, the reality of adventure began to take hold. Not that I would do it, even for all the grains of sand of Arabia. But I understood why Pat wanted very much to succeed in this awesome challenge. My share of her adventure was to be one of encouragement & faith that she could do it.

Pat ready to get going
The decision to walk from west (Abu Samra, near the Saudi border) to east (south of the Sealine Resort) was largely the result of last year’s failure to manage the journey from east to west. After 25 km. the group encountered a fierce sandstorm &, after struggling to continue, they turned back to their starting point, faces burned by the sun & flayed by the vicious sand. Sandstorms are generally the result of a strong shamal (north-westerly wind) & so the chances of success looked better when keeping the wind from behind. Jeff & Ellie Holte (from Minnesota) were the instigators, inspiration, & planners last year & again in 2009.
Chris V. (from North Bay) & Mary (from California) were also back for a second try.

I felt that my best contribution would be as part of the logistics & back-up team & so it was that I found myself two weeks before THE WALK driving around the southern Qatar desert with Jeff & Chris. Our task was to locate a suitable finishing point & make sure that it was marked in the GPS. That done, we back-tracked twenty km. to find a good site where the walkers could camp overnight. That too was marked & we began the task of burying tent, sleeping bags, food, & water. We also left a pile of wood for a campfire. Then it was on again another 20 km. where we hid 18 litres of water (marked on the GPS). So the stage was set.

Chris V. & Jeff with the Suzuki Jimny
Part of the purpose of the reconnoitering was to give me training in driving the Suzuki Jimny through the dunes & also unravel the mysteries of the GPS. What a great learning experience. Letting air out of the tires in order to keep moving in soft sand, switching from second to first gear at 5,000 RPM so as not to lose momentum when only half way up a steep dune, making split-second decisions on direction so as to avoid hidden rocks or impossible patches of sand. That is to say nothing of travelling along an innocuous dune only to realize at the last second that there
was a fifty-foot precipice just to our left. It was all very exhilarating & scary at the same time. We made it, however, & only got stuck once.

On Thursday (19 February), a convoy left the school at 16h.00 & headed for Abu Samra, The trip down was uneventful except for a brief panic when one of the mattress pads escaped from the ropes on top of one car & flew onto the highway. No harm was done & so we continued after a few adjustments to the load.

It took just over an hour & we found our way from the main road down onto the beach, only a few kilometers away from the Saudi border. A strong north-westerly wind was blowing & it was too cold to set up camp beside the sea. So, we drove a couple of hundred yards inland & parked the three vehicles in line to provide shelter in their lee.

Chris & Jenny W. readjust the load.


Camp Molly by the sea near Abu Samra

It was a struggle to get the tents up but we managed & soon had supper cooking over the fire. It was already dark & the stars sparkled in a moonless sky. Jeff, Chris, & I worked on the three GPS units to make sure we had all the rendezvous points synchronized & then we were able to sit around the fire for an hour or so just enjoying the company & the experience of desert camping.



Desert camp fire


The night was cool & the sleeping bags hardly sufficient, but we survived the night in spite of the wind which buffeted the tents until around 03h.00 when it subsided & shifted to the south. Although the plan was for a 05h.00 start, everything took a little longer than expected & it was already 07h.30 when breakfast was over & the site packed up. There remained a short walk to touch the sea & a few photos before the intrepid group of five headed off towards the east.














Chris V., Mary, Pat, Ellie, Jeff

Beginning of the long march

It was with mixed feelings that I watched them disappear in the distance, knowing as I did much of the hard terrain that they would face during that long Friday walk (20 km to the water cache & another 20 km to the campsite). So it was that the rest of us returned to Doha to wait for news.

About five hours later, back in Doha, I had a call from Pat saying that she was feeling the effects of heatstroke & thought it best not to continue. There was disappointment in her voice but also relief at knowing that this was the time to stop. They had covered 15 km in five hours & were running short of water. Jeff gave me the GPS coordinates & I set out immediately on my rescue mission. It was around 30 degrees & hardly surprising that the walk was proving harder than imagined. It took me about an hour & a half to drive across the desert but I finally found the group sheltering from the heat under a small thorn tree. I had stopped on the way at the water cache & so was able to provide much needed drink to the whole group before they continued while Pat & I headed back to Doha.

It took them another nine hours to reach the campsite (“Camp Oasis”) but they made it & were able to eat & sleep before continuing on Saturday morning. Pat & I, Peter & Robin, Betty & Judy, set off for the Sealine Resort where we were to await news & then head out to pick up the walkers at the end of the trip. Pat & I stopped on the way down & collected the tents, sleeping bags, & other stuff from Camp Oasis, which avoided another day’s excursion to pick everything up. Chris & Jenny W. were to have driven down but Chris unexpectedly had to go into hospital on Friday night. That left only two cars for the pick-up: the Suzuki & Peter & Robin’s SUV.

After an hour or so relaxing at the Sealine Resort, we had a call from Jeff that they were about thirty minutes from the end. So off we went to find the rendezvous point. This proved harder than expected & we were getting stuck in the sand & finding it difficult to get through the dunes to the beach. Peter & Robin decided to stay on the “main” track while Pat & I made our way to the coastline. We found the weary & sunburned group & then had to ferry them back in twos to Peter & Robin. That turned out to be harder than we thought & we realized that Peter & Robin badly needed a GPS that nobody had thought about. The sun was beginning to set when we managed to link up, leaving Ellie & Mary there while Pat & I headed back to pick up Jeff & Chris.

Jeff & Chris (the beer bottle is a mirage)

So, after getting the tires inflated, we drove back home, amazed that the crazy adventure had ended successfully. Pat felt good that she had attempted the walk & glad that she had the wisdom to know when to stop. Without the heat, she would have certainly been able to complete the 60 km & was in good shape to try.



This is me now…yep, it was an adventure. The landscape of that desert is harsh. But, we saw beautiful rocks…we couldn’t pick them up of course (more to carry) but we want to go back for shorter walks. The heat really was intense and after 5 hours, I was really beginning to feel sick. I just knew that I would not make the whole 60 km and I didn’t want to hold them back. As it was, it took them 8 ½ hours to walk the first 20 km. Anyway, I’m glad I tried and I’m glad I knew I had to stop. All that training was well worth it. This week I’m going to Scottish Country Dancing….from one crazy thing to another!

Down on the Farm (26 February 2009)

Last night we went out to the ‘farm’ of one of my students. He has been asking all year. We learned some things:

• A’farm’ here is more like a country estate.
• They have white camels (rare) and Arabian horses and Oryx and exotic birds of all kinds (including ostrich, peacock, guinea fowl, …)
• Boys and men in this family have a regular Thursday night get-together (in this case at the Al Kuwari farm)
• The girls and women go somewhere too…we don’t know where
• It’s a good idea to go later because they don’t eat until around 9 (we went at 4 pm.!)
• They play volleyball or soccer for hours….much like our families do when they get together….
• They are extremely generous…our cars were filled with produce from the farm…huge cabbages, eggplants and corn. All of these are used in the restaurants and hotels they own, but when guests come they insist that we take it home.
• Every Thursday night they feed around 50 people who just arrive….eat, and talk.
• We were served various drinks throughout including warm, sweet, camel’s milk, “karak” (sweet tea with lots of milk), & Arabian bitter coffee.
• When you’re finished drinking you hand the cup back to the servant with a little wiggle of the wrist. No wiggle & you’ll get another cupful.
• The teenagers love to show off their cars & drive like crazy all over the dirt roads on the farm.
• After eating people just drift away although close friends probably stayed on for many hours.