Reem: It seemed to take all morning to reach the nomads’ camp, leading the camels up and down dunes and riding across the flat places Mansour calls sabkha. In the end, I didn't know...

Jamal: In the first week of our stay with the nomads, some herdsmen of our clan returned to the camp not long before sunset. They were accompanied by a nomad called Salim, who looked...

Reem: One of the first trips we took from the nomad camp was to a well called Ayn al-Arnab to get water for the tent. It was half a morning’s journey through the dunes, walking with the...

Reem and Jamal had been in the desert for three whole days. No internet. No video games. No pizza delivery. “Seriously,” groaned Jamal, “I would trade my ghutra for one bar...

Reem and Jamal had only just arrived in the desert that morning. The sun had barely climbed past the sand dunes when their bags were dropped outside a large black goat-hair tent...

Jamal: We stayed the night at the Ayn Mansur well. At sunset, Reem and I helped Dahat and Mansour bring the camels into our camp. Dahat lit a fire and as we sat around it...

Jamal: One night — actually it was the early hours of the morning — Mansour woke me up and told me to come with him. Naturally, I wondered what was going on, but he just shook his head...

Jamal: This morning, we went with Mansour to visit the camel herd grazing in the abal and rimth pastures on the other side of the dunes. Reem and I have our own she-camels now...

Reem: At first, I wasn’t so taken with the idea of sitting around the fire with the nomad women after dark in their quarters, chatting and listening to stories. Boring, I thought! I missed...

Reem: On a journey with Mansour, we were camping for the night amid a sea of dunes when, not long before sunrise, I was woken up by a deep humming sound. At first, I thought it must be...

Jamal: Mansour would always tell us that there was a right way and a wrong way of doing things in the desert. He said that nomad ways had been handed down from our ancestors and...

Jamal: It was morning and we were riding camels across an area of low, rolling dunes scattered with firebush. At a certain point, Mansour told us we had to walk. I don’t know why...

I don’t know what woke me in the night, but I opened my eyes to find that my camel was gone. He had just disappeared, leaving me in the middle of nowhere. I was terrified because...