Across the Empty Quarter

Wilfred Thesiger (Source: Here)

I've just finished reading a slim volume titled Across the Empty Quarter- an account of the late British explorer Wilfred Thesiger's journey across the fabled Rub al Khali or the Empty Quarter in southern Arabia between 1946 and 1948. The journey is a story of a lost way of life and the story of the endurance of man in the face of the most extreme conditions that nature has to offer.

This is a travel diary that recounts in great detail the journey across one of the harshest landscapes in the world. Thesiger has captured the romance of the Bedouin way of life as well as its perils. This story of a lost world and time are beautifully told as only a person who has completely immersed himself in it can.

While being a keen observer of those around him, Thesiger is also brutally honest about his own feelings , experiences and shortcomings. My favorite parts in the book are the vivid descriptions of the punishing climb up the treacherously steep dune of the Uruq al Shaiba as well as Thesiger's recounting of the three nights that he spent without food while his companions went looking for supplies in the desert settlement of Liwa.

Source: Here

Of course for those interested in a detailed record of Thesiger's travels through Arabia nothing beats the brilliant Arabian Sands.

Thesiger's life is an inspiration to every restless wanderer. And for those of us who feel compelled to lose ourselves in the beauty of the unexplored his is a life that is testament to the rewards of such compulsions.

Also check out this photo essay about the Rub al Khali in the Saudi Aramco Magazine.