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Look: 10 athletes walk 1,000km across Abu Dhabi, witness 'most beautiful' sand dunes

Seeing wildlife creatures, mingling with locals and walking side by side with the President’s son for 8km, were among their highlights

Published: Sat 4 Jan 2025, 6:28 PM

Updated: Sun 5 Jan 2025, 7:25 PM

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Walking 1,000km in the desert with a 30-day time cap is not an easy task, but like any other tough challenge, with a bit of determination and motivation, 10 Abu Dhabi athletes proved that it could be done as they travelled on foot from Al Sila, through the Liwa desert to Al Ain, and finally to Al Wathba on December 2.

Coming face to face with wildlife creatures, mingling with the locals and walking side by side with the President’s son for 8km on day 17 of the trek, were among the highlights of their wild expedition. Notably, Sheikh Zayed bin Hamad joined them for the entire 45km stretch.

Walk1000, a joint initiative between Active Abu Dhabi, Pure Health and Abu Dhabi Sports Council, aims to inspire the community to start walking and be active.

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Sheikh Zayed bin Hamad

Sheikh Zayed bin Hamad

Wildlife action

Teasing a horned viper, playing with a black scorpion and finally observing the rare sand cat were among the entertaining moments streamed by UAE explorer and founder of National Geographic Arabic magazine Khalifa Al Mazrouei.

“We observed interesting wildlife creatures like the Arabian Oryx (Al Maha in Arabic) it used to be an endangered species, but Sheikh Zayed (the late UAE Founding Father) managed to return it to the wildlife, and we saw many poisonous and non-poisonous snakes, and immigrant birds.”

He said he was keen on featuring certain creatures, like the black scorpion and horned viper, locally known as Um Jneib, to show people that they don’t need to attack or kill them if they see them, because they won’t hurt, unless threatened.

“Um Jneib is a defensive snake, it does not attack, I could’ve endangered myself if she felt threatened by me, but the safety distance I maintained was very important. Understanding the wild animal before approaching it is essential,” explained the 32-year-old.

Apart from interacting with the desert’s wildlife on the sidelines of the trek, Al Mazrouei said the highlight of Walk1000 was the massive number of people who took part in the walk, and how they inspired many ‘inactive and unfit’ people to start walking with them; 'many of them continue to be active till today’.

“We did not have time to feel bored or lose hope, we all became friends and always talked and entertained one another; we walked for 12 hours every day and slept early at around 8.30pm.”

Nonetheless, there were many difficult moments with the temperature hitting 45℃ during the first two weeks of their expedition.

“We mostly missed the presence of air conditioning in our lives; we had to walk up to 45km per day to make it from Al Sila’a to Ghuweifat and from Ghuweifat to Liwa, and the sand dunes were very tough to cross.

“The journey was difficult overall, but the toughest part was the psychological battle; being away from your home, family and life’s convenience, like finding food and water anywhere.”

Fun moments

Tarek Ahmad’s most treasured moments of Walk1000 included hunting with a falcon, correctly guessing which camel would win the beauty contest ‘mazayna’, singing around the bonfire and walking through all types of sand dunes.

“Liwa has the most beautiful sand dunes I have ever seen,” he described.

Despite suffering an injury in his right ankle on the first day, with his pain tolerance and quality time with the team, Ahmad said he managed to continue walking despite the pain that lasted for four days. The hard times never lacked comic relief either.

“As a I was laying down gazing at the start starting point one of the days, Khalifa placed a scorpion between my legs,” he recalled.

“He then asked me to start shooting one of his scenes and suddenly yelled: ‘What is this between your legs?’ I saw the scorpion and my heart dropped. I started running after him and it was a rather funny, yet risky prank.”

Unlike the fellow athletes who come from various fitness backgrounds, the 35-year-old Egyptian is an engineer and entertainer and hardly practised any sports before signing up for the expedition.

“I realised that the human body is adaptable to any situation it faces. I learned that walking and running are the most active moves that anyone can do daily to achieve a healthy body and build their dream body shape.”

If he would recommend anything after his profound active lifestyle, he said it would be to walk 45 minutes every day, “and you will notice the body transformation from the first month”.

“Walking teaches you how to be patient and tolerate any physical or mental pain or overcome traumas,” he concluded.

When it gets tough

“This was the toughest challenge I ever did,” said veteran marathoner and athlete, Daniel Tesfaye.

“Walking 1,000km is not easy, but as a team we managed to do it; it required a lot of mental readiness."

“The hot weather made it very challenging; when you walk, the sun is directly on your face. It was very tough. At one point we had to change the route after because the wind was blowing against us, and we couldn’t see anything; sometimes nature is the biggest challenge,” said the insurance quality controller.

Apart from the discomfort, fatigue and the mental roller coaster one feels while walking massive distances in the gruesome desert everyday, the 50-year-old said there were special experiences like no other. The Ethiopian expat said he witnessed ‘a diverse nature environment’ that he did not expect to observe while walking across the Abu Dhabi desert.

“On the way, I saw mountains and forests and urban landscape that I did not expect to see in a UAE desert. Last year there was heavy rainfall, so from the sand itself some greenery came out, and no camels no other animals happened to ruin it, we were told by one of the locals.”

Meeting new people

The social interactions and friends they made on the way, were also a highlight, said Tesfaye.

“It was a very rewarding to experience generosity and compassion by strangers. On one of the days, as we were walking, we found a family waiting for us, they had a tent and called us inside, offered us dates and coffee.”

The team were also joined with several community members during big fractions of their walk to show support, including Sheikh Zayed bin Mohammed bin Zayed, who joined them with 20 companions to show support and walked with them the whole day finishing the designated distance of 45km.

“He spent the whole day with us and showed a lot of strength and support, we were motivated by him.”

Tesfaye also became the group’s expert on avoiding blisters and rashes; “because no matter how much mental resilience you have, it will be very hard to continue before you treat them".

“I was really surprised I did not get any blisters. For 30 days, I was cleaning up every night and applying Vaseline and baby powder before putting my shoes on, I think this did the trick.”

He also managed a rash he got the first day by applying a curing cream immediately, “the second day it was completely healed”.

Stronger than before

With their increased strength and agility, four of the Walk1000 athletes ran the full Abu Dhabi marathon just five days after concluding their lengthy walk. Thanks to the challenge, Tesfaye said he managed to finish the full 42.1km distance with more speed and comfort than his seven previous marathons.

“My coach was telling me to take it easy this time, but when I started running my body felt so strong I finished the entire distance in three hours 59 minutes, my previous best time was 4:10.”

The Walk1000 athletes also included Mansour Al Dhaheri, Faisal Alketbi, Ayesha Almemari, Khalfan Alkaabi, Ohoud Al Dhaheri, Jurry Ducay and Becky Gosney.

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