Desert Encounter
Chapter 3

《Welcome to Rub al Khali》the tourist agent in front of us began in impeccable English.

He was a North African in his thirties, tanned skin, wearing shorts and a shirt with the logo of the hotel where we had been staying since last night.

From where we were, I could see vast expanses of desert.

It was simply magnificent.

《As you know, the Rub’al Khali desert is the largest sea of ​​sand in the world with a length of 1000km and a width of 500km. Its surface area is 650,000 km² and……….》

I was already no longer listening, too focused on observing the surroundings, it was truly a breathtaking spectacle.

《Naomi come on move your little a*s, we’re moving forward》

Romeo with his usual tact, I came out of my contemplation and followed him between these few people who accompanied us.

We were heading towards 4X4s.

According to what I had followed, we had to take them to a meeting point with another team, from there camels were waiting for us for the crossing.

Of course we weren’t going to make the whole crossing. We were going to stop at an oasis which was 200 km away and then we would return.

I liked the program. Especially since for the moment we were only 4 passengers. The other 6 people were already waiting for us.

☆

It was with eagerness that I got out of the 4X4. To observe the camels in front of me and could hear from afar our tourist agent named Ahmed informing us that the mission ended there and that we should continue with his colleague who did not speak English and he apologized for that. Oh shit

I looked in wonder at a man feeding camels. If I wasn’t such a big fear of animals, I would have happily gone and done the same.



There were now about ten of us, including three women and the majority of men wearing their scarves, so it was impossible for me to see what they might have looked like.

But one impressed me more than the others, he had a fairly imposing build and an aura that sent chills down my spine.

To be honest, my Romeo wasn’t the big guy, no, he was quite frail.

He wasn’t the type of man to kill himself at the gym, he was more of the nerd on duty with his big naco (glasses) that I always liked to take off to annoy him.

Romeo worked as a computer scientist. He was the one who managed the IT unit of his company.

But what fascinated me most about him was his patience and his ability to speak several languages, including Arabic.

That’s why I felt completely safe with him.

We each took turns riding a camel. I was with Romeo and I had put on a veil to protect my hair from the wind and my face from the heat.

Sitting behind him. He was the one holding the reins and good for me. I just snuggled up to him.

Long hours passed and we finally arrived at our destination. And I could finally admire what was in front of me.

A large expanse of water surrounded by grass and bushes faced me, I could make out a few palm trees scattered here and there.

The water seemed quite clean to me even if I doubted its drinkability.



An Oasis was there in front of me and it was just magnificent



Then without me understanding what was happening a man dove into the water. It had to be said that it was really very hot many minutes later, while I was sitting nibbling on some thickets, the man responsible for accompanying us began to speak in Arabic.

I then approached Romeo so that he could explain to me what was happening and he then said to me:

《- a sandstorm is approaching

– what! I shouted. It’s a joke, reassure me.

– no my heart. And he asks us to move towards the large rocks a few meters away to take shelter

– and the camels

– they will stay here, they are not afraid of anything

– and our backpacks? I’m warning you, I’m not leaving them. You know that I feel comfortable when I walk with my papers. I can’t leave without it. I say, fuming at what’s happening

– okay take your bag. I leave mine. he told me simply, fixing his glasses as if they had a problem.

Then I saw the group begin to move towards my right through sand dunes.

– come on let’s go, they will give us capes or blankets to cover us》

So I just contented myself with a humm before following him across the sand when the wind started to blow a little stronger.

The storm was fast approaching and with it all its misfortunes.