A three member expedition team from Oman completed an epic journey, ‘Tahaddi Arabia’,  by crossing the world’s largest sand desert, Empty Quarter, on foot and reached the Rayyan Castle yesterday.
They were received by HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani, the president of Qatar Olympic Committee as well as one of the patrons of the expedition. The ministry of youth and sports with Nomas Centre had organised a welcoming ceremony for the team to celebrate their historic achievement.
Saudi Arabian ambassador, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Aifan, Omani ambassador Mohamed bin Nasser al-Wahaibi, British ambassador Ajay Sharma as well as a number of senior Qatari officials were present on the occasion.
The team members- Omani citizens Mohammed al-Zadjali and Amour al-Wahaibi and British expatriate in Oman Mark Evans- walked from Salalah through Saudi Arabia, to Doha, retracing the historic 1,300km route taken in 1930 by a group of Omani and British explorers that had reached at the same Rayyan Castle.
Speaking to the media, Evans said: “We were faced by two main challenges: physical and mental. Physically it was exhausting as we have not even had a single day off. But the mental challenge was more tough to handle. We were relieved to reach the Qatar border.”
Faisal al-Mansouri, director of public relations and marketing at the ministry of youth and sports, said: “85 years ago, two pioneer travellers reached Qatar after crossing the depths of the Empty Quarter and bringing with them the tales of the vast desert. Today, we celebrate the same feat by brave travellers of our era. Their challenge is aimed to emphasise the importance of preserving the historical and cultural heritage of the region, and encourage and inspire a new wave of young travellers to instil self-reliance and resilience in them to overcome all odds in life.”
The team, had reached the Qatari border on the morning of January 24. They were greeted by the children from the Nomas Centre and spent the night out in the open desert in what was a reflection of the travellers’ experience. The journeymen were then taken to a desert area popular with Qataris, where tents were setup to spend the night out in the open.
The caravan reached its final destination of Rayyan Castle yesterday morning. The journey started in Salalah, Oman, on December 10, 2015, and continued across Saudi Arabia through to the Empty Quarter, culminating in Qatar.
 The mental challenge was the most difficult to overcome in the whole expedition, said Evans after crossing the world’s largest sand desert on foot.
“Every day, we wondered when we would arrive at our destination. How many more kilometres do we have to cover? How far is it to Doha? These questions kept ringing in our minds,” said Mark Evans, one of the members of the group.
Mohamed al-Zadjali, another member of the expedition group observed: “Everyday during the journey, I had a dream that tomorrow would be better than today. I thought the next day would be easier than the previous one. How long will it take to reach Doha.These are questions that we had every single day.”
“This is my first time in Qatar. I am happy that I walk so that I could observe the countryside closely. The Rayyan Castle was the end of the first journey and we wanted our journey to end here too. We also wanted to stick to the same route taken by the previous team as much as possible,” said Amour al-Wahaibi, the third member of the team.
“We came across both physical and mental challenges. After two weeks, we were almost fit to face the hardships and overcame the physical challenges. But mental challenges persisted and were hard to control. It was the most difficult one. We compared our journey to a marathon like situation and kept confronting it each day,” said Evans.
“However the biggest difficulty that we had faced was going through the dunes in Saudi Arabia. It was the most difficult part of the journey. The dunes in Saudi Arabia were very difficult. The sand was so soft and at times the temperature was in mid 30s. The wind was strong. The camels were refusing to go and did not move,” he added.
Evans pointed out that they walked about 35-40km every day. “We kept going everyday with out any rest day. I lost seven kilos and one of my teammates lost seven kilos and the other one 10 kilos. But when we reached the border of Qatar, we were relieved that we were almost done. It was still another 90km to Doha.”