MEET John C. Smith - The First Kiwi to Ever Cross the Empty Quarter

Setting out from Salalah in southern Oman on 10 December, 2015, John C. Smith was well aware that, should the Crossing the Empty Quarter expedition team be successful, he would be the first New Zealander to cross the biggest sand desert in the world – roughly the size of France, Germany and Spain combined. And so it was that over the course of the ensuing 49 days John and the expedition team led by British explorer Mark Evans and his two Omani companions Mohammed Zadjali and Amer al Wahaibi covered a distance of 1200 kilometres across Oman, Saudi Arabia and into Doha, Qatar on 27 January, 2016. Mission accomplished, as they say.


Photo © Sim Davis

John is no stranger to Oman. This particular expedition was his 18th visit to the Sultanate in 22 years having first driven to Muscat with Chris, his wife, from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia in 1994. At the time Chris was teaching at the British International School, and John was Head of Radiation Oncology at King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh. It was in Riyadh that John first met expedition leader Mark Evans. A shared interest in weekend 4WD trips out into the dunes has led to bigger things.
                                                      
Since then, in addition to his own expeditions, John has accompanied Mark Evans on many - Canadian Arctic 1998 (Melville Island), Arctic Year on Svalbard 2002, kayaking the entire coastline of Oman (land support) 2004 - 2005, to name a few. Furthermore, John is involved with Connecting Cultures in Oman (an initiative founded by Mark and now operated under the umbrella of Outward Bound Oman), and he operates a two week photographic tour to Oman every year or so.
                                                                                             
John’s role on the Crossing the Empty Quarter expedition was diverse: Support vehicle driver, photographer, medic, quartermaster - to name a few.


Photo © John C. Smith
 
The expedition was 18 months in the planning as the objective was no easy feat. The team aimed to cross the entire region known as Rub Al Khali – The Empty Quarter. This journey had not been repeated since another British explorer, Bertram Thomas, managed it in 1930-31, 85 years ago. Thomas’ success was a global sensation at the time.
                            
“We faithfully followed Thomas’ route as best we could, given current political issues (for example Thomas walked through part of Yemen, something we could not do) and the need to negotiate our way through huge sand dunes in the vehicles. We had to pick our route very carefully. The vehicles were fully laden with 50 days food, water (for camels and team), cans of fuel, hay for camels, and firewood collected along the way. There was room for the driver only”, explains John.
 
Out in the emptiness, John recorded encountering a snake, the tracks of several other snakes and scorpions, and most nights about the team’s sleeping bags being visited by foxes and gerbils as they slept under the stars.
 
There was a daily search for artefacts in the desert sands with John finding evidence of ancient flint being worked and even an excellent example of an arrowhead dating back some 3000-5000 years. And on the roof of a cave in southern Oman the team found some very early Arabic script which is now being researched.
 
And stocking provisions for every meal across an anticipated journey of 50-days, well they need not have bothered as the region’s famed local hospitality was to provide many an unexpected meal. John recalls numerous occasions, particularly in southern Oman where local tribes would insist the expedition team stop and join them in a meal of some significance leading to more than 20 often impromptu social gatherings along the way.


Photo © John C. Smith

“I will never forget the kindness and generosity of the local tribes. It was not unusual for local Bedouin to appear at sunset and insist on providing us with a meal of goat, sheep or even camel. Sometimes there would be 30-40 locals sitting around the fire, chatting well in to the night. It wasn’t until the 10th or 11th night that we were actually required to cook our own dinner!  Occasionally the same would happen in the middle of the day as well, filling us but hindering our daily progress. When I arrive back home in Christchurch in mid-February, I will almost certainly entertain a vegetarian stretch for some time”, noted John.
                                              
“It was impossible to carry sufficient water for the entire journey and we had to rely on wells. We did have many waypoints from Bertram Thomas’s 1930 journey but his co-ordinates were made using a sextant and chronometers and were frequently inaccurate. Fortunately we had access to a number of modern GPS waypoints. It was always thrilling to successfully locate a well. The water quality varied from near perfect with a slight salty taste - to very sulphurous in smell and totally undrinkable. Fortunately the camels were not quite so fussy”, he continues.
 
The wells proved to not simply be physical waypoints, but also waypoints through history in the knowledge that Bertram Thomas and his team slaked their own thirsts at those same spots 85 years earlier. It is also a matter of fact that one well near the end of the journey had also been visited by Wilfred Thesiger – of Arabian Sands fame – making even deeper connections through time.

There’s another remarkable, historical waypoint in this story as John explains, “Bertram Thomas was born in Pil, near Bristol. By coincidence, my great grandfather was also born in Pil. Both he and Thomas’s grandfather were harbour pilots, skippering the cutters that guided boats into the Avon River - an area with huge tidal range. Both his grandfather and my great grandfather skippered the very same cutter, but at different times.”

Mona Tannous, Country Manager Australia & New Zealand, Sultanate of Oman Tourism said, “We have followed the Crossing the Empty Quarter expedition since it set out from Salalah in December last year with great pride. The updates from the team throughout the journey have been astonishing and we are delighted that they have reached their ambitious goal. Perseverance, technology, camels and the region’s famed local hospitality have all played a part in this extraordinary achievement. We congratulate them and wish them safe journey’s home.”

The final word goes to expedition leader, mark Evans: “It has been an incredible journey for us all. It was both physically and psychologically challenging, but I was constantly bolstered by the perseverance and friendship of my two Omani guides and by the good humour and encouragement of our support team, including John C. Smith who came all the way from New Zealand to join the team – and became the first Kiwi to cross the Empty Quarter.”