Everest Climber Takes on Arabian Desert

Less than two years ago, the bitter cold of Mt. Everest made heating water for tea a formidable task for Jamie Clarke. Now he’s got more than enough heat but barely enough water.

Clarke, a Canadian who climbed the Himalayan peak in 1997, is trekking across Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter, infamous for its quicksand, mountainous sand dunes and blazing heat.

“I long for walking into the kitchen and pouring a sweet glass of cold water,” said Clarke by satellite phone from the desert.

Clarke set out Feb. 2 with his brother Leigh, friend Bruce Kirkby, three Bedouin guides and 12 camels.

The three Canadians from Calgary are attempting to cross the Empty Quarter--the Rub al-Khaly in Arabic--on foot. The first Westerner to do so was British traveler and author Wilfred Thesiger in 1947.

Clarke, 31, says that his group is facing the same inhospitable conditions that Thesiger described in his book “Arabian Sands.”

“During the day, the heat is unbearable,” said Clarke. “You are cursing the sun as you walk and wish for it to go away. When night finally comes it’s cold, and you wish for the sun to come back. It’s almost schizophrenic.”

Daytime temperatures top 117 degrees Fahrenheit--with the sand even hotter at 186 degrees. At night, the temperature falls to 48 degrees.

“The wells are drying up, the camels are tired, and temperatures are rising,” he said. If the heat intensifies, the group may be forced to travel by night, he added.

There are no permanent roads or settlements in the Empty Quarter, which covers 115,000 square miles of southern Arabia.

Clarke said he has found the Empty Quarter to be empty in some ways and not at all empty in others.

“The silence is both frightening and comforting,” he said. “You get lost with your thoughts so easily. It’s unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been.”

Expecting to Reach Goal This Week

Yet he has found life too, which he hadn’t expected.

“We’ve seen migrating birds stop their journey for a moment and circle overhead, taking interest in us,” he said. “We’ve seen beetles, snakes, spiders and even a couple of antelopes.”

The idea of crossing a desert on foot came to Clarke while he was doing the opposite--seeking the summit of the world’s tallest mountain.

“There, the altitude was a problem. It was the lack of oxygen,” he said. “Here, the heat is extreme, suffocating. It’s unescapable. It affects us all. Our tempers are shorter because of it.”

He said that before starting the trip, he thought that the group had a 50-50 chance of completing it. “Now, after all that we’ve seen and encountered, I think the odds are less,” he said.

The group set off from Salalah in Oman and expect to reach Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates this week. If successful, they will have covered 620 miles in about 60 days.

In a second interview March 5, Clarke said, “We’re a lot darker and leaner, but we can almost smell the saltwater” of Abu Dhabi. At the few police posts they have passed during their trek, he said, “we’re quite a novelty.”

They prepared for months for the trip, including exercises in desert survival in Texas and Arizona and studies of the Saudi culture.

Clarke and his colleagues are wearing the dishdasha--the traditional Arab robe--with head-dresses and sandals.

“Sandy-colored, not white dishdashas, so they won’t look so dirty,” Clarke said.

The 12 camels, which Clarke insisted make his team an 18-member group, carry food and water, which a support team has dropped at intervals along the team’s route.

“We met Thesiger before we began and his words of advice still echo in my head. He said ‘Spare your camels. Your life depends on them.’ I see what he means now,” Clarke said.

The trekkers’ water is stored in goatskin containers, and dinner is often strips of dried camel meat. Breakfast is traditional bitter Arabic coffee and dates.

“The water tastes a little brackish, but as long as it’s wet, we have no complaints,” he said.

Unlike Thesiger, the team has Global Positioning System equipment for navigation and Personal Locator Beacon transmitters to be used in an emergency.

A Web site has been set up to inform the public, especially schoolchildren, of progress on the journey. Clarke feeds the site from a laptop computer, powered by solar energy, and a digital camera.

He’s already reached one conclusion: “I will never drink a glass of water without truly appreciating it.”

The trekkers’ Web site is www.alwaysadventure.net