After surmounting Everest on his third attempt, Jamie turns his attention to crossing the world's longest and most forbidding sand desert, the Rub al Khali or 'Empty Quarter' of the Arabian peninsula. In tribute to Sir Wilfred Thesiger, whose own sensitive accounts of the Arabian desert and its peoples have enthralled generations, Jamie and his crew decide to retrace the route of this great explorer, a feat never before duplicated by a westerner.
Jamie's narrative skillfully guides us through the intricacies of the entire experience -- from 'camel wrangling' training in the Texas desert, the team's initial meeting with Thesiger himself in England, the infinite trials of sponsorship and bureaucratic necessities, to the desert journey itself. Once the adventure is underway, Jamie's day-to-day account is enthralling, achieving a pleasant balance in its combination of dialogue, description, and emotion.
Flashbacks to his Everest experiences are thoughtfully placed, and his comparisons of the two native peoples, the Sherpas and the Bedouins, show Jamie to be as attuned to the cultures he encounters as he is to the physical challenges of the landscape. The reader grows to know and appreciate the entire team, from Jamie's Canadian accomplices, Leigh Clarke and Bruce Kirby, to the generous and hospitable Bedouins who accompany them, and finally the colorful cast of camels whose antics never cease to amaze and amuse.
Victor Hugo once said, 'The desert is where God is and man is not' and after reading 'Everest to Arabia' his sentiments are more clearly understood. Across long miles in Oman and Saudi Arabia, to victory on the shores of the Arabian Gulf in the United Arab Emirates, Jamie Clarke takes us to one of the most forbidding and inaccessible places on earth. It is a rewarding journey, indeed.
An evocative and mesmerizing page-turner, Everest To Arabia is Jamie Clarke's thrilling story of his expedition across the Empty Quarter on camel. Even after summiting Everest on his third attempt, Jamie's irresistible urge to explore drove him onward to yet another incredible challenge, the inhospitable Empty Quarter.
Fueled by the legendary explorer, Sir Wilfred Thesiger's stories of the Quarter and the Bedu inhabitants, Jamie, along with his brother and Bruce Kirkby, embark on one of this centuries greatest and most difficult journeys across the most desolate desert in the world.
Everest to Arabia is a truly fascinating read, not just about Bedu culture, hardships of travel by camel, but about the human spirit and potential to overcome our fears and doubts, our ability to 'step out of the frame,' and do something truly spectacular. Jamie's words and example tells us, the reader, to dream, and dream big.
Everest To Arabia is a vivid and scorched to the bone account... Convincing... Whether Jamie is tackling the Mashadid well searching for water, brewing the perfect cup of coffee in a sand storm, wrestling with his camel, or having flashbacks of crossing the Khumba icefield on Everest, Clarke knows how to use precise detail and poetic imagery to make this epic story come to life.
The pages of this book crunch with desert sand and smell of exotic lands. Jamie Clarke is one of the worlds greatest living explorers, in another era he might have been compared to Shipton or Mallory. Harrowing, relentless, honest...and thoroughly enjoyable. Jamie Clarke's Everest To Arabia shouldn't be missing in anyone's adventure library.
Paperback, only edition, New, SIGNED by Jamie Clarke.
