A falcon perches on Hajar Ali’s arm. Ali became the first woman
to cross the Empty Quarter in a 12-day expedition.
Dubai: Almost a century ago, legendary female explorer
Rosita Forbes contemplated on crossing one of the world's largest
sand desert — the Empty Quarter or the Rub Al Khali.
Some 80 years later, what Forbes only dreamed of will hopefully
be realised by a female explorer from Singapore, Hajar Ali.
And if successful, she will be the first female to ever make a
true crossing of the Empty Quarter.
"I'd always been in love with travelling to remote destinations
and the Empty Quarter is one of the most remote and extreme
destinations in the world," the 32-year-old Ali told Gulf News. The
expedition will begin today.
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Home to some of the world's largest compound dunes, the Empty
Quarter spans 650,000 square kilometres and runs across four Arab
countries — the UAE, Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It is also
considered as one of the world's driest, hottest, and most
unyielding environments as explorer Donovan Webster would put
it.
Upon arriving in the UAE, Ali and her team will head straight to
the desert for the 12-day expedition. <!-- Link Package
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"This will be a vehicle crossing and we will be going through
the Abu Dhabi and Omani end of the Empty Quarter. This will be a
north-south crossing going through the eastern lobe," said Ali,
founder of Urbane Nomads, a travel company specialising in luxury
travel to remote places.
First expedition
"This will be my first expedition, but I'd travelled to remote,
off-the-beaten trek places—from the North-West Frontier Province in
Pakistan immediately in the wake of Osama [Bin Laden] operation, to
remote far western Mongolia for a visit of the famed Kazakh eagle
hunters to remote northern Kenya," she added.
Ali will be going with a support team so that they could provide
assistance should her vehicle get stuck in sand.
The whole team will be camping in the Empty Quarter all
throughout the trip. But it is not only the Empty Quarter that they
plan to cross. The team will also be going to the Iraqi
Marshlands.
"The Empty Quarter and the Iraqi Marshlands had been chosen as
these were the settings of legendary explorer and travel writer
Wilfred Thesiger's books The Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs, Ali
said.
Dubai If there's one thing Singaporean traveller Hajar Ali would
never forget after crossing one of the world's largest sand deserts
— the Empty Quarter — last week, it would be the connection that
she had made with nature.
"Waking up in the morning to all the sand dunes, to just
nothingness, nobody around you, just sand dunes. It's so beautiful
to be one [with nature]," Ali, who set out on an expedition to the
Empty Quarter on March 22, told Gulf News.
There are very few places left unexplored now. And the Empty
Quarter, I feel like it's one of the most remote, very extreme
environments
Singaporean traveller Hajar Ali
Natural element
"You'll feel like you're in your natural element. Then you'll
really see how living things actually live in the ecosystem," Ali
added.
Originally a 12-day expedition, Ali claimed to have become the
first woman to have made a North to South vehicle crossing of the
Empty Quarter through the eastern lobe in just six days.
Spans four Arab countries <!-- Link Package
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The Empty Quarter spans 650,000 square kilometres and runs
across four Arab countries — the UAE, Oman, Yemen and Saudi
Arabia.
It is home to some of the world's largest dunes and is also
considered as one of the world's driest, hottest, and most
unyielding environments.
"There are very few places left unexplored now. And the Empty
Quarter, I feel like it's one of the most remote, very extreme
environments. It has really nice history of exploration and
expedition and to be the first woman [to cross it] is very
satisfying," Ali, who was aided by a Dubai-based driver in her
journey, said.
And as if on cue, the team encountered a problem right away at
the beginning of the trip.
"We heard some sound, and then the roof rack dislodged itself
and actually slid down on our [car's] windscreen. Luckily, for us
it slid down at an angle where it did not crash the windscreen
because we would have got hurt," Ali said.
Even if she had prepared for the worst, Ali said that the
sandstorms during their last three nights in the desert made it
difficult for her to sleep.
"It felt like there's someone depositing sand into your tent. So
when the sandstorm got really bad, the only place you can sleep in
is the car," Ali said.
No longer a stranger to inconveniences caused by
off-the-beaten-track places, Ali said taking a toilet break out in
the desert was no issue until she saw something on the sand.
"I was [looking for] a spot for a toilet break, and then I found
bullets, and then I got really scared, It's a really bad idea to be
shot at while you're on your toilet break," Ali said jokingly.
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