Explorer on 50 days trek across Arabia�s �Empty Quarter�

AFP, SALALAH, Oman: A team of walkers set off on a 50-day trek from Oman on Thursday that will take them across the world’s largest sand desert, the Empty Quarter, in the southern Arabian peninsula.
Led by Muscat-based British explorer Mark Evans, the three-man team will retrace the 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) route taken by a British civil servant, Bertram Thomas, in 1930, from Salalah in southern Oman, through Saudi Arabia, to Doha in Qatar.
Despite the threat of warring tribes and a constant struggle to find enough water, Thomas completed the journey in 57 days.
Evans, 54, and his two Omani colleagues will be accompanied by two vehicles to carry water and provisions, along with a train of four camels, but will need to stop at the same watering holes Thomas used 85 years ago to top up their supplies.
“It will be a trip that has its difficulties. We’re walking across one of the least inhabited places on earth,” Evans told AFP as he prepared to set off.
But he said the team would count on the same kind of hospitality that Thomas experienced on the original journey.

Explorer on 50 days trek across Arabia�s �Empty Quarter�

AFP, SALALAH, Oman: A team of walkers set off on a 50-day trek from Oman on Thursday that will take them across the worlds largest sand desert, the Empty Quarter, in the southern Arabian peninsula. Led by Muscat-based British explorer Mark Evans, the three-man team will retrace the 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) route taken by a British civil servant, Bertram Thomas, in 1930, from Salalah in southern Oman, through Saudi Arabia, to Doha in Qatar. Despite the threat of warring tribes and a constant struggle to find enough water, Thomas completed the journey in 57 days. Evans, 54, and his two Omani colleagues will be accompanied by two vehicles to carry water and provisions, along with a train of four camels, but will need to stop at the same watering holes Thomas used 85 years ago to top up their supplies. It will be a trip that has its difficulties. Were walking across one of the least inhabited places on earth, Evans told AFP as he prepared to set off. But he said the team would count on the same kind of hospitality that Thomas experienced on the original journey.