The Empty Quarter

In 1979 fresh out of school I was lost, fucked all my A levels (really academic study of any kind is not for me) i really had no idea what to do (still don’t) so luckily for this wimpy pathetic kid, my father sorted a job. I worked in Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 for a year for an American company called Harbert Howard, laying the water supply network to Jeddah. It was hot work, outside most of the time, walking pipelines searching for leaks. Then when they were found digging down to the pipe to find the collar and hopefully the reason for the leak. Being there lowed me to learn to Dive😍😍🤩 oh the Red Sea diving 😲 learn softball, becone quite good at squash. Oh the outdoor life for me.

At the end of my year i hitched a lift from a friend who was driving back to UK. North through Saudi, into Jordan then Syria. Between Jordan and Syria in no mans land a group of guys in jeans and t-shirts jumped out pointing guns at us, they demanded our passports that we proffered quickly, they checked gave them back and waved us on, I have never been so scared on my life.

While there my father advised/suggested 🤔 I should read Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger. During that year I had a great deal of free time on my hands and consequently I did follow his advice, quite unusual for a 19/20 year old me. I now have the book on my Kindle so can reread it anytime.

Maybe that was the instigator to keep bringing me back to this region.

Thesiger describes how he crosses and recrossed, Al Rub Al Khali, the Empty Quarter in the late 1940’s. He had been in the SAS in the war so was not adverse to a bit of hardship. The book is extraordinary. The Empty Quarter covers most of the southern part of the Arabian peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE and Yemen)

So here I am, unfortunately just crossing the southern limits. There are a few towns here but not a lot else, the sea of dunes are further north.