In 1945, Wilfred Thesiger set off on an epic adventure, crossing the ‘Empty Quarter’ of Saudi Arabia, one of the first Europeans to do so, with the help of Bedouin locals.
In his seminal 1959 book, Arabian Sands , the British explorer writes of what is now Saudi Arabia: "There is no rhythm of the seasons, no rise and fall of sap, but empty wastes where only the changing temperature marks the passage of the year. It is a bitter, desiccated land which knows nothing of gentleness or ease."
Despite nominally being the ‘Empty Quarter’, this region was never truly empty, as no space truly is, something Thesiger notes in his introduction: "Men have lived there since earliest times… Men live there because it is the world into which they were born."
The explorer tells us: "No man can live this life and emerge unchanged. He will carry, however fait, the imprint of the desert."
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In late January and early February, the riders of the Saudi Tour were left with the imprint of the desert, as they spent five days in the Saudi Arabian desert. Blasted with sand, assaulted by the wind, and scorched by the sun, the peloton will certainly remember their time in the "desiccated land".
It is not an experience unique to the Saudi Tour, the riders of the Tour of Oman and the currently-ongoing UAE Tour would also attest to the brutality of the landscape they have been through, about as far from the familiarities of northern […]
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