A DESERT JOURNEY

Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1931, Page 5

A DESERT JOURNEY

OF 900 MILES. (Times). LONDON. February 26. A dispatch from Bertram Thomas, described a camel journey of nine hundred miles across Ruhalkhnli. It took fifty-eight days', of wURIc forty-five! were spent travelling. He wore an A rail kit. but otherwise journeyed as an undisguised Christian. He left i Dhufar with an escort of 30 Arabs j and forty camels and arrived at Dohali ! with thirteen Arabs and eighteen cornels. the numbers having been progressively reduced as the menace of Uadliramaut raiders were leit behind. From Shixur they plunged westwards 'into the unknown for one hundred waterless miles, skirted the southern edge of the mighty bulward of red sands hinged dunes, the habitat of the ostrich and antelope. Tim former were almost extinct and the latter plentiful. LONDON, February 26. Numerous very deep caravan tracks were found, evidencing centuries of usage in bygone times. The Bedouins call it the road to [Thar—their legendary city of the prehistoric days. Sands oncrouched from the southward. According to the local tribesmen, buried beneath them is the Atlantic of Rttbalkbali. Though hundreds of miles from the sort, and thousands of foot altitude, the sand is strewn with sea-shells and fossils. Proceeding north-west they encountered singing sands. The deep booming sound was caused hv the action of the wind among the sand-cliffs resembling a ship’s siren. North of twenty-third parallel, the altitude falls to sea level and even below it. when lie discovered a lake of j salt water seven miles long. On the I rest of the line of march water was plentiful, but brackish and undrinkable. The whole region appears to have been under the sea in late geological times. The inhabitants are nomad sections of Alkathir and Almnrra tribes, and subsist entirely on camels, milk, ravens, and bustards which are wipespread. Foxes, hares, and lizards are common, also wolves, wild eats and rats. All mammals are of the light sand colour of their environment. SIR, A. WILSON’S PRAISE. LONDON. February 26. Commenting on the dispatch, Sir Arnold Wilson states caravan tracks almost in the centre of the sands seem proof that Arab legends of abandoned cities are well founded. No rumour of the existence of the salt hike was previously known, but singing sands have been recorded in Gobi Desert, Afghanistan. and Sinai Peninsula. Thomas’ achievement deserved; to illn 1c with those of Stanley, Shackleton and Scott.