Singaporean woman crossed world driest desert
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Singaporean woman set to cross Empty Quarter
A falcon perches on Hajar Ali’s arm. Ali became the first woman to cross the Empty Quarter in a 12-day expedition.
Dubai: Almost a century ago, legendary female explorer Rosita Forbes contemplated on crossing one of the world's largest sand desert — the Empty Quarter or the Rub Al Khali.
Some 80 years later, what Forbes only dreamed of will hopefully be realised by a female explorer from Singapore, Hajar Ali.
And if successful, she will be the first female to ever make a true crossing of the Empty Quarter.
"I'd always been in love with travelling to remote destinations and the Empty Quarter is one of the most remote and extreme destinations in the world," the 32-year-old Ali told Gulf News. The expedition will begin today.
Home to some of the world's largest compound dunes, the Empty Quarter spans 650,000 square kilometres and runs across four Arab countries — the UAE, Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It is also considered as one of the world's driest, hottest, and most unyielding environments as explorer Donovan Webster would put it.
Upon arriving in the UAE, Ali and her team will head straight to the desert for the 12-day expedition.
"This will be a vehicle crossing and we will be going through the Abu Dhabi and Omani end of the Empty Quarter. This will be a north-south crossing going through the eastern lobe," said Ali, founder of Urbane Nomads, a travel company specialising in luxury travel to remote places.
First expedition
"This will be my first expedition, but I'd travelled to remote, off-the-beaten trek places—from the North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan immediately in the wake of Osama [Bin Laden] operation, to remote far western Mongolia for a visit of the famed Kazakh eagle hunters to remote northern Kenya," she added.
Ali will be going with a support team so that they could provide assistance should her vehicle get stuck in sand.
The whole team will be camping in the Empty Quarter all throughout the trip. But it is not only the Empty Quarter that they plan to cross. The team will also be going to the Iraqi Marshlands.
"The Empty Quarter and the Iraqi Marshlands had been chosen as these were the settings of legendary explorer and travel writer Wilfred Thesiger's books The Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs, Ali said.
Ali stakes claim as first woman to cross Empty Quarter
Dubai If there's one thing Singaporean traveller Hajar Ali would never forget after crossing one of the world's largest sand deserts — the Empty Quarter — last week, it would be the connection that she had made with nature.
"Waking up in the morning to all the sand dunes, to just nothingness, nobody around you, just sand dunes. It's so beautiful to be one [with nature]," Ali, who set out on an expedition to the Empty Quarter on March 22, told Gulf News.
“There are very few places left unexplored now. And the Empty Quarter, I feel like it's one of the most remote, very extreme environments
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well done!
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would this be a new Guinness world record?
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singapore borned singaporean?
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Kudos!
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wow.
fantastic baby.
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
Kudos!
who is this ugly
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Originally posted by Li hao Lim Matthew:
who is this ugly
She is Taylor Swift. Why, are u jealous?
The best country singer ever! -
breasts should be much bigger.
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Originally posted by Fcukpap:
would this be a new Guinness world record?
She is the first woman but not the first person. -
I tot the Sahara Desert is largest???
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Originally posted by ^Acid^ aka s|aO^eH~:
I tot the Sahara Desert is largest???
The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert.
The Empty Quarter in the Arabian peninsula is one of the largest.
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oh okay... thanks for the clarification fudgey...
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so she has vehicles.. loads of money and equipment and a backup team to support her team when their vehicles get stuck in the sand? does she has helicopter support on standby 24/7?
