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8th January 2003
A chilly night - and an equally chilly morning, particularly at 6.30 am. Richard and I are not the only ones who find the early start a problem - Shakespear also had to get up early with his guides and whenever the chance arose would enjoy what he called a 'Europe morning'. Fortunately it took a bit of time for Abdullah etc to pack away their tents - with our roof tent being relatively easy to fold up we can be ready to leave in around 5 minutes, which means more time to enjoy the warmth of our sleeping bags. Our first destination - the wells at Arfajiyya, described by Captain Shakespear in his 1914 Journal. As we were to discover, wells can be spread over a wide area and if they are old and no longer in use can be difficult to find as it takes very little time for them to be filled with sand.
The area Shakespear described was flat and lacking cover so he and his guides were unable to stop and camp and could only fill their waterskins - it was interesting to see that in the 90 years that have passed a number of dunes have grown and completely changed the look of the land surrounding the wells. Moving on from Arfajiyya we arrived at the Jarawi wells - now with a small Bedouin settlement close by and surrounded by date palms, small trees and bushes, a classic oasis. Several of the wells are still in use - peering down into the gloom you could just see the ripples in the water deep below. Strangely, Ibrahim did not seem too enthusiastic about our idea to lower him and his camera down a well in order to get a better shot!
By 1000 our stomachs were telling us it was time for food - stopping at the base of a 50 metre high dune we tucked into a superb breakfast of cheese, honey, freshly made bread, halwa and, of course, gallons of tea. No time to sit around in the sun taking in our surroundings - we had to move on to Domat Al Jandar and Kasr Marid... |
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