Mark meets some pupils from the Jeddah Prep and Grammar School, the oldest British School in Saudi Arabia. Through their conversations Mark hears how the expedition has inspired the pupils to learn more about the history, geography and culture of Saudi Arabia, of Philby, of the current expedition.

Mark’s ambition for the Heart of Arabia Expedition was to inspire young people to journey with purpose. Listen to this podcast to hear exactly how that happens in reality.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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Talal Al Unaizi, a journalist with the Saudi Press Agency is travelling with team. Mark has been inspired by his poetry recitals during their time together so he asks Talal to recites a poem for the podcast.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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After 2 days exploring Taif, Mark and the team, like Philby before them are full of the hustle and bustle of the urban area and are yearning for the open space of the desert again.

Skirting round Mecca, they travel through Wadi Al Laimun, the valley of the lemons. Meeting a local they discover his grandfather met and talked to Philby as he passed through the wadi. Mark compares his own description of the valley to Philby’s writings – both conjure beautiful images, smells and sights of the great barrier that separates Jeddah from the rest of Arabia.

Tomorrow the Heart of Arabia Expedition team will descend to the flatlands of Jeddah and dip their toes into the Red Sea.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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On their arrival at Taif the expedition team visited the Shubra Palace, just as Philby did 106 years ago. Today it’s a heritage site looked after by the Museum Commission of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture.

Mark sits down with Heritage Manager, Hasan Al Noumari to discover the history and heritage of the palace and its significance both locally in Taif, but also in wider Arabian culture.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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Like Philby 106 years before them, Mark and the team have arrived in Taif on Christmas Day. They first visit the Shubra Palace which today is engulfed by Taif, the 6th largest urban area of Saudi Arabia. This is where Philby first arrived, but then it was still a distance from the town walls.

Philby spent 2 days in Taif. His original plan to return to Riyadh thwarted he feasted and continued to Jeddah. Our expedition team will do the same. They received wonderful hospitality, but with only 2 more days of travel to Jeddah their minds are looking ahead to the last steps of the Heart of Arabia Expedition.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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A huge sandstorm battered the team yesterday, so Mark is up early this morning to update the podcast. The expedition team are on the brink of Taif and will arrive there later today.

Yesterday’s going got harder and harder underfoot as Mark and Reem cross the crevassed lava fields of harat. Although uncompromising terrain for our expedition team the ground provides protection for wildlife from predators. So listen for the abundance of birdlife in the background as Mark talks.

Under the new moon Mark reads from Philby’s book where he reflects on his arrival in Taif in 1917 as news reached them 1900 years previously of an event that destined to change the history of the world.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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The team leave the Uruq Sabai behind them and make their way to Khurma, a small but historically significant settlement. 

Mark reflects on Philby’s journey all those years ago, when Philby was close to exhaustion after an 11.5 mile hike, eating only rice and dates after his camel went lame.  For both Philby and the Heart of Arabia team there was a welcome feast of camel meat for the first time on the trip.  Camping by the edge of a lava field, a harrat, Mark contemplates the days ahead and the mission of arriving in Taif on Thursday.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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Mark wakes early to the sound of the hoopoe lark then the expedition team set off to cross the Uruq Sabai – an extensive mountain of desert sand stretching some 70 miles in length.   Once they’re all safely across they head north to re-join the Philby line and Mark reflects on how different Phiby’s crossing was to their own.  For Philby the vast expanse meant being exposed both to wolves and then to hostile locals who surrounded them at gun point.  Fortunately for Philby they never discovered he was an Englishman or it could have ended very differently.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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Mark and Reem walk across a vast plain of desert before coming to rest before tomorrow’s crossing of the Uruq Subai sand barrier.  It’s a landscape that seems to offer up little, no landmarks, not even a hint of greenery and only a bit of wildlife in the form of some birds when they break for lunch.  Mark reads Philby’s diary, who found it a similarly dry and empty-seeming part of the route.

Mark takes time to reflect on the incredible ancient hand axe artifacts, found during the previous days, and wonder at the hands that carved them, possibly as long ago as half a million years.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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After hours searching the team are rewarded with an extraordinary find – several hand axes, hundreds of thousands of years old and invaluable evidence of desert occupation in the distant past. 

Mark then reflects on Philby’s time in the desert highlands to compare with their own experiences of this extraordinary landscape and draws on Philby as saying he left the highlands with “many a knotty problem unattempted, many a hidden mystery unsolved”.  The expedition team may well feel the same as they prepare for their final day in the highlands tomorrow before heading West towards Taif where they aim to arrive later this week.

Expedition website: The Heart of Arabia Expedition

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The Heart of Arabia Expedition podcast is produced by Adventurous Audio