The Red Sands: My Trip in the Uae Desert

By Gamal Elsayed Dorah

Dedicated to the spirit of the ancestors in the UAE, Oman as well as the spirit of the eternal leadership which well maintained the nation, and overcome all the difficult circumstances as well as the ruthless of the desert, despite the minimalism of their potentials.
These spirits who struggle and exerted the utmost efforts without any arrogance or egotism to culminate these hard work with the birth of the UAE, which has given the prominent replica since its existence benevolent the coexistence between all human beings and individuals without race, color or religion distinction or discrimination.
This all resulted in the this Renaissance genius in all walks of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: May 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496976697

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2014 Gamal Elsayed Dorah. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/30/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-7665-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-7669-7 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Dedication

To the spirit of the ancestors in the UAE, Oman as well as the spirit of the external leadership which well maintained the nation, and overcome all the difficult circumstances as well as the ruthless of the desert, despite the minimalism of their potentials.

These spirits who struggle and exerted the utmost efforts without any arrogance or egotism to culminate these hard work with the birth of the UAE, which has given the prominent replica since its existence benevolent the coexistence between all human beings and individuals without race, color or religion distinction or discrimination.

This all resulted in the Renaissance genius in all walks of life.

GAMAL ELSAYED DORAH

Introduction

Growing up in an Egyptian village, it is not surprising that – since my early childhood – I have been fond of nature, contemplation and careful observation. The several journeys, I made, helped me satisfy such a desire. Due to , I fell in history in the tenth grade of school stage , I felt that I was before a big challenge, which I had to overcome. I, thus, become addicted to reading history. No sooner did I finish reading a book about the history of a certain people’s specific era then I rushed to find out more about that people’s previous history. I, then, found myself taken with the idea of reading the history of neighboring peoples and countries.

I, therefore, gained great knowledge about most of the peoples of the world. I augmented such a great deal of knowledge through paying several visits to the countries that have seen ancient civilizations and empires. There, I was keen on scrutinizing the relics and monuments those peoples left behind them, whether through sightseeing or visiting museums.

I never felt alienated when I traveled to any country for the first time, as reading helped me imagine what the grandparents was doing during those countries’ ancient eras. What pleases me - during such journeys - is to visit the monuments, which give me the feeling of taking a time machine backwards to live with those who erected them. What pleases me more is to see grandchildren preserve their grandparents’ genuine customs and traditions. Those, therefore, travels made me love the entire world from the bottom of my heart.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where I sought to develop my business, it took many time for me to complete my reading and studies about such an important spot of the world. I made several tours with the aim of satisfying my desire for exploring the territory and get acquainted with its people’s life.

For a successful exploratory journey, I learned several skills, such as driving in sand dunes and rugged valleys, reading maps, using different navigation instruments, studying the topography of the destination and having good knowledge of the various weather conditions of each area.

I also brought all necessary equipment, including SUV cars, camping gear, living requirements and primitive cooking tools and first aid kit, which can be used in case of emergency. I also learned a good part of astronomy, as well as studying how to use stars in finding the cardinal points.

As an adventurer and Egyptian lover of the UAE, its history, heritage and experiment, I wrote this book to give readers the chance to know the other side of the UAE, away from the side, which everybody already knows: money, business, and the exemplary development experiment appreciated by the whole world.

Giving an account of the desert journeys I made to different places, I put all information - historical, geographical or environmental - which I managed to get whether through personal observation, previous reading, people I have met during visits to each region or my UAE friends in this book. I was keen on talking about the soul of the united UAE, skipping over territorial limits, hoping that all readers – of different ages and cultures – would benefit from the book. I wrote this book to target both visitors and residents of the UAE, as well as citizens, particularly young people to learn the lessons of history and preserve what their grandparents suffered to build.

I prefaced the book by an account of my early life in the Egyptian countryside, stating the reason for my close link with the UAE desert. I then divided the book into journeys, which I recounted according to their chronology, pouring the essence of my experience and information on the pages, hoping that everybody would benefit from. I attached some available photos that I apologize for the low quality of some of them, as – at the time of journeys - I had no intention to write the book.

I would like to offer sincere thanks to all pioneers in travel writing, particularly Wilfred Thesiger, author of great book Arabian Sands. In this book, Thesiger described his pioneering journey in crossing the sands of Rub Al-Khali (the Empty Quarter) from Salalah to Liwa in the 1940s.

I also would like to extend special thanks to my wife and children, who endured a lots and without their support, I would have never been accomplish these splendor journeys.

I will not forget to express my grateful thanks to my friends – of all nationalities - who faced risks with me during those journeys.

Finally, I wish the UAE people and all people of the world peace and security.

Gamal Elsayed Dorrah

Thursday, April 2nd, 2014

Important Message

The specified goal and the careful planning are, among other things, the most important factors for any journey to succeed. Sufficient information should be gathered about the places intended to be visited through searching the various sources of information and asking those who might have visited these places before. The period and distance of the journey should be defined right from the beginning. The clothes and personal requirements suitable for the journey and the various weather conditions should also be carefully selected. A family member should be informed with the place of the journey and the names and phones numbers of some of the accompanying people, who should be carefully selected. The team should enjoy several skills, as many as it could be, such as auto repair, cooking, reading of maps, knowing cardinal directions, and many other skills. Roles should be divided among member of the team right from the beginning, to avoid wasting time during the trip.

Driving in desert is different from driving in urban areas, where streets are paved and easily identified. As for the desert, the soil is different, which requires a different driving method. People should first be fully acquainted with such methods before embarking on unwise adventures in those remote areas.

I grew up in an Egyptian Nile Delta village in early 1960s. Our village, just like other rural villages, maintained the traditional lifestyle. It is no exaggeration to say that that such a traditional lifestyle is inherited thousands of years ago.

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This lifestyle depends on agriculture and the breading of livestock and domestic birds in certain annual sessions that have not been changed over time. The agricultural crops are the same (maize, wheat and clover), and the livestock also are the same (cows and buffalos) and the domestic birds also are the same (geese, ducks and pigeons). This could be noticed in the papyruses and on the walls of the temples dating back thousands of years, even before the age of building the pyramids.

The tools used for tillage and harvesting are the same: axe, plow, scythe and threshing machine, which have not been changed. Irrigation system and water lifting equipment, such as the shadoof (a device consisting of a pivoted rod or pole with a bucket at one end and a counterbalancing weight at the other), the tambour (known as Archimedes screw, which consists of a spiral passage or a screw encased in a cylinder) and the waterwheel, have not been changed as well.

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Many of the wells lined with burnt bricks still preserve their structure and beauty long time ago. Measures of land length and area, such as measuring rods and stony or iron tools for the demarcation of borders are still used. Grain storage silos made of clay, and fuel used in cooking and baking, which is made of dried cotton and maize stalks and cakes of animals’ dung, are the same. Planting and harvesting dates are still based on the ancient Egyptian calendar, a way that is still followed until those