I could spot this beautiful butterfly on one of a bush in the middle of sand dunes, yes butterfly in the desert!

Butterfly in Desert

There were many lush green bushes in Al Kahtim area, which indicated the presence of a water table in this area.

I could also spot sand grass and one of my favorite dead looking grass, which is actually alive at the root.

It’s not dead

Walking in the desert far away from any settlement is almost like meditating, you feel such calmness in a beautiful landscape! Al Khatim desert is untouched apart from volunteered walked here before us to prepare for the challenge. So it was also clean, otherwise, you always find leftover coal from barbecue or campfire in the desert near cities in UAE.

One of the beautiful sites in the desert is sunset. The sunset in desert reflects those twilight colors not only the sky but in the sand too!

The sky was equally beautiful after the sunset with moon getting brighter and rising stars! I heard from many fellow participants a comment like they never seen so many stars in UAE! Of course, I didn’t lose an opportunity and discussed with them about light pollution and how Bedouins in olden days used stars to navigate across Sahara desert! Actually, because of the full moon, it was not an ideal night to watch stars but the desert a is great place in UAE for sky watching.

It was an amazing site to see people walking with headlights or torches on the silhouette of sand dunes at night! Climbing on some of the dunes was very challenging, slopes were steep and every time you try to climb your feet go deep in the to sand, then you need to exert extra force. But I felt hiking sand dunes is one of the safest hike, as there is only soft sand everywhere and no rocks, even if you fall you won’t get hurt badly.

By the time I reached 2.5 km mark, I felt really happy that I could do this without much preparation
with an average fitness level! So to celebrate this small achievement organizers provided this photo opportunity. We could feel sand everywhere on us by this time but it was worth getting dirty! I am now definitely inspired to give more attention to increase my fitness and endurance level. The people who exited challenge at 2.5 km mark were transported to 7 km mark, where there were arrangements of relaxing around the campfire and some food and beverage arrangements. After watching some champions reaching 7 km mark from desert behind and hugged by EWS-WWF Panda, I decided to just lie down next to the campfire and look up in the sky! It was so pleasant in the desert, I was ready to stay there for the next 3 months, till the weather starts getting hot again.

EWS-WWF’s Panda

Later we were transported to Arabian Nights Village where we had a nice arabic dinner with a live performance of arabic singing with Oud. I am definitely coming back to this hotel specially when I learnt they take pride in not providing satellite TV instead immerse their guests in culture!

Caracal Challenge was a fabulous, one of a kind event, much needed in UAE where people sometimes think there isn’t much in the desert (without much exploring it). The participants attending this event were so full of positive energy that it’s not surprising almost everyone made some new friends here. It supports this discussion I had just a few days back through this post when you are close to Nature, you become more authentic!

After talking to many participants, I can surely claim they learnt so much about UAE’s natural heritage and natural landscape, which was the ultimate goal of this event! This event was a great success-story of spreading awareness about UAE’s environment.

Refilling Water in my reusable stainless steel bottle

But can’t resist mentioning a slight disappointment here out of a good intention. It was actually delightful to see that organizers took great efforts in arranging numerous water dispensers to refill water bottles at the start point and every exit/refill point. But I still found many empty plastic bottles littered in the pristine desert. I just kept on picking them up and stuffed in my backpack. It was saddening that message organizers were trying to pass on to the crowd was not understood by them properly. I completely understand, it’s very important to be hydrated in the desert while walking or racing and health was a definitely bigger priority. But what were the ways to pass on the message to the less receptive part of the crowd without any confusion? May be providing only one or two bottles each with a sticker “Refill It” on it? The water bottle in complementary back pack was a plastic bottle (not really a sustainable product, adding to more plastic waste at end of cycle). Instead of that may be ‘bring your own empty bottle’ would have worked better? (Just an idea) Because it was really easy to achieve that from my experience. I packed my favorite stainless steel water bottle in my bag and refilled it a few times. As I am attempting a zero waste lifestyle in UAE, this topic is really dear to me. When I saw the water dispensers at the start point, I just hoped not to see any plastic bottle litter in this untouched part of the desert. But I really appreciate organizers team and partners who thought about this issue of plastic water bottle waste in UAE and took steps in the right direction. Without taking these first steps, we will never come to know what works and what doesn’t. The efforts are refreshing and very welcoming!

I am sure EWS-WWF along with their partners will continue with their great work of conservation in the region and we will have many such green celebrations in the future! On behalf of all those who attended I would like to say, we are very much looking forward to such desert challenge again, may be The Caracal Challenge 2017?

Walk of Shadows!