PARTICIPANTS: The participants of last year’s inaugural edition of the challenge. The challenge saw 36 participants who were chosen via a draw from 460 submissions encompassing 55 nationalities. Those who made it to the two-day challenge were 12 women and 24 men, between the ages of 23 and 54.
By Anand Holla
“I have always loved the desert,” writes Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in his popular book The Little Prince, “One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams.”
What better way, then, to feel that magic than to experience the desert as a wanderer? In the second edition of the Desert Caravan Challenge, Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) invites you to join a cavalcade of adventurers who will embark on a gruelling endurance test on February 6 and 7, in celebration of National Sport Day.
Navigating through a rocky Qatari desert landscape means you will have to outlast your companions in rather harsh conditions.
Last February, the successful inaugural edition of Desert Caravan Challenge saw 36 participants who were chosen via a draw from 460 submissions encompassing 55 nationalities. Those who made it to the two-day challenge were 12 women and 24 men, between the ages of 23 and 54.
The Challenge, organised in partnership with Qatar Museums (QM), is part of QTA’s efforts to diversify Qatar’s tourism offerings, as it seeks to treat the participants to the age-old Arab tradition of camel riding. The 12-km-long journey will start and end at Zekreet village, west of Qatar, and the QTA has planned two camel caravans for the same.
While last’s year’s challenge was organised in Al Zubarah Fort, the venue for this year’s challenge is the historical Zekreet region.
The ride will kick off from outside the antiquated mosque in Zekreet (House of the Imam) and weave through the enchanting desert to Zekreet Fort along the western region of Qatar. “The caravan will journey around Qatar’s Mid-Western quarter with rest stops near Richard Serra’s sculptures at Ras Abrouq as well as the ruins of Bir Zekreet,” the QTA says.
Participating is free but only a maximum of 30 participants can take part over the two days. Once you register yourself for the challenge on the QTA website, all applicants will be part of a draw, which will decide the participants. You may want to hurry up as the registration is open only till January 29. The challenge is open to all the residents of Qatar over the age of 18.
The participants need not have any knowledge of camel riding because a number of highly-qualified camel-riding trainers will lead each group of riders. The only pre-requisite is that one should be in good physical condition.
The ride may take around three hours to complete. During the journey, the participants experience authentic Qatari hospitality and refreshments in tents put up in the middle of the desert.
While the confirmed participants must drive themselves to the starting point of the challenge at Zekreet Village, GPS co-ordinates and directions will be provided to them beforehand.
Last year’s ride began at the Al Zubarah Fort, and a four-hour-journey later, ended at the same location. A second caravan marched through the desert in the North-West of Qatar to the finish line at the Al Zubarah Fort.
The Desert Caravan Challenge falls within QTA’s objectives to develop a sustainable and diversified tourism sector through building touristic assets and offer a truly authentic Qatari experience to attract international tourists, as part of National Tourism Sector Strategy 2030.
