Travels with My Hat: from Chapter 3 Member of the Royal Press Corps

...The Concorde bringing the Queen to Saudi Arabia touched down in Riyadh......Suddenly there was pandemonium. Everyone, including the State Guards, was running this way and that and after years of working alone, I forgot our strict orders not to leave the press group. Dashing outside the airport, I hailed a passing taxi.

‘Quick! The Nasirya Palace!’ I told the driver.

The Queen and the Duke were to stay here while the Britannia sailed to Dhahran, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. A photo-call at the palace was not on our itinerary, but I hoped to sail in on a bit of bluff. Especially since I was an honorary man!

The Indian taxi-driver entered into the spirit of the moment as though his country was still under the British Raj. Speeding along the sandy highways and byways of Riyadh, he screeched to a halt in front of a mammoth building flying the Union Jack. And above it, fluttering in the desert wind, was Her Majesty’s personal standard.

‘This is the Nasirya Palace memsahib,’ he said, reversing the dented red Datsun in between gleaming black limousines.

Racing up the palace steps, I nodded at the Bedouin guards. Did they think I was an advance on the ladies-in-waiting? Without asking, they waved me inside a vast foyer lit with chandeliers the size of flying saucers.

It took courage to stand there surrounded by many princes of the estimated 7,000 members of the House of Saud: tall, erect men all wearing the bisht edged with gold, the mark of nobility. My eyes roamed over onyx tables and huge vases of flowers, but my flashlight sparked a buzz of conversation and feeling vulnerable, I wound my long black scarf around my face like one of their own women.

When a Rolls Royce drew up at the palace steps, attention shifted from me to the Queen. Trained not to flinch, Her Majesty passed me with only a brief look of surprise. Had I gone completely native? Trailing behind her, the Duchess and Lady Susan looked perturbed. Could Buckingham Palace have erred? Should they too be veiled. Dresses brushing the marble floor, they swept towards the majlis and before anyone could enquire why I didn’t follow them, I scampered back to the taxi.

‘It's the most exciting day of my life!’ said the old Indian. ‘Finally something to write home about from this god-forsaken country.'

Back at the Riyadh Inter-Continental, my luck was in when a helpful MEA pilot offered to take my films to London. My editor, Ita Buttrose, had been insistent we beat rival Woman's Day to press. Leaving Riyadh at midnight, the films were collected next morning from the Kensington Hilton in London and were Sydney-bound that afternoon.

A week later my article - CARRY ON DOWN THE GULF MA'AM - THE SHEIKHS LOVE YOU! captured attention 'Down Under’.

Image: Her Majesty is welcomed by King Khalid at Riyadh International Airport.

BIRD-WATCHING IN YEMEN

Excerpt from Chapter 5: No Mocha in Mocha

That evening I found two tourists in the hotel restaurant. The first I had seen on either visit to Yemen, they were male, middle aged and sipping soup.

‘We're from the Suffolk Birdwatchers Club,’ said one, his broad grin revealing a gap in his teeth.

‘I’m Herb and this is Norman,’ he indicated his sandy haired companion.

‘We`ve been doing avifauna checks on the Tihama,’ said Norman. ‘The rest of our group has left, but we want to do some spotting on the plateau. You’re welcome to come.’

I met Herb and Norm in the lobby next morning. They were wearing khaki safari gear, multi-pocketed gilets, and canvas hats. I was in brown linen trousers and a cream high necked shirt, as worn by Meryl Streep in Out of Africa. The taxi-driver had on jeans with a sleeveless sheep’s wool jacket and a black baseball cap with Baltimore Orioles on it.

‘Siddiq, friend America,’ he said clearly pleased I had noticed.

The rugged central plateau of Yemen abounds in birdlife. Creeping about the giant euphorbias with expensive Luger binoculars, Herb identified Arabian babblers, amethyst starlings, rollers, shrikes, warblers and weavers for Norm to record in a log-book.

The driver looked on as though they were mad. A task for small country boys in Yemen is to scare birds off the crops. Beginning at dawn, they spend all day seated in the fields firing stones at them from homemade catapults. The iridescent throat of the grey rock pigeon makes it an easy target.

‘Look!` said Herb, whistling through his teeth as a beautiful bird alighted on a fig tree. It was a shimmering paradise fly-catcher which our driver, deftly miming the action, explained will nip off its tail in order to confuse a predator.

After an hour’s bird-watching, Herb and Norm spread out a tartan blanket and sat down with a thermos of tea. It was still too soon after breakfast for me and I wandered off along a track where a tall woman was climbing up from the ravine.

She wore a smock over black harem trousers embroidered at the ankles, gold bracelets and a piece of muslin wound around her head securing a bunch of marigolds. A goddess of the coffee terraces, showing no sign of astonishment at our meeting, she walked up and kissed my hand all in a single movement, and continued striding up the hill.

Travels With my Hat for publication 2012.

YEMEN'S LAST DANCE

A prime objective within al Qaeda's long-term strategy of establishing a pan-Islamic Caliphate, is the burning desire to overthrow the House of Saud. Other operations, though catastrophic, have been largely red herrings to distract attention from its gradual infiltration of Yemen, the back door to Mecca, and the Holy Shrines.

It comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with Yemen, that this fascinating, but dysfunctional country, has become centre stage in the battle to contain worldwide terrorism.

Yemen's domestic history is a mix of on-going religious and tribal conflict.

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, it fell under control of the Zaidi imams, a Shi'ite sect embedded in the north and on the central plateau, and contested by the Shafi's, a Sunni school of law, inhabiting the western mountain slopes and the Tihama coastal plain.

A Zaidi imam ruled the country until the dynasty was overthrown in a military coup in 1962, allegedly lead by the current President - Ali Abdullah Saleh.

This tangled bacground has resulted in swathes of Yemen being ruled by dissident tribesmen. Notably the Sa'dah area along the Saudi border, Wadi Jawf - the ancient conduit for frankincense caravans travelling north from the Hadramaut, and the Shabwa governorate, south-east of Sana'a, allegedly operational base of AQAP (the self styled Al Qaeda of the Arabian peninsula).

The Sana'a central government has no authority in these areas where foreigners, taken hostage to highlight a local need for investment in health and education, have usually been released unharmed (certain elements of the British media have even joked about going on an 'expenses free holiday' in the Yemen).

Such activities became sinister in March 2009, with the murder of Korean tourists in Shibam - a UN World Heritage town in the Hadramaut - followed in June, by the deaths and kidnappings of medical workers in Sa'dah for which al-Haithy rebels are likely responsible.

Since then the armed forces of Yemen, assisted by Saudi air-strikes against rebel incursions, have stepped up resistance to the northern revolt lest disaffected tribes compound the terrorist problem.

Despite the fact that Yemen now has more 'no go' areas than a Swiss cheese has holes, in October, the Yemen Tourism Promotion Board, launched a campaign to attract visitors by bringing a folklore troupe to dance on Paddington station, and at key spots on the Continent.

The Minister of Tourism subsequently received the 'Golden Rudder Award' for creativity, presented in Jeddah, by Arab tourism members of the GCC States - Gulf Co-Operation Council which Yemen would dearly like to join.

Abu Dhabi's announcement of a $US650 million fund to bolster the shaky Sana'a government indicates growing regional concern by the Gulf States already feeling threatened by Iran.

And Obama's U-turn over the closure of Guantanamo, largely relates to the fact that 45% inmates are Yemenis. Could Sana'a be trusted to put them on trial. Or would they be released, to potentially re-group with al Qaeda?

Yemen's destiny remains unknown. But what seems certain, is that further destablisation caused by either Zaidi rebels, or disenchanted southerners, will serve an AQAP element, thought linked to al-Shabaab, in Somalia.

While Yemen may not espouse outside intervention, the alternative to propping up the central government, could see a pincer grip on either side of the Bab al-Mandeb, the strategic entrance to the Red Sea.

copyright: Christine Osborne.
image: A Yemeni tribesman.
source: www.copix.co.uk

QATAR'S PRISTINE WONDERLAND

Some of the world`s great natural attractions are sought out by people seeking a deeper meaning to their holiday.

Apart from their spiritual significance, wonders such as Uluru, the great monolith in Central Australia, the Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls -some still worshipped by ethnic peoples - have become famous tourist destinations in their own right.

Khor al-Udeid in the Arab state of Qatar is one of these awesome, mystical places.

Spreading over 12,000 ha, the vast tidal inlet, commonly known as the `inland sea` cuts into the desert from the Gulf coast to form a border with Saudi Arabia. Measuring 12 km from east to west, the khor is a magic region of turquoise channels bordered by soaring wind-blown dunes.

The tides surging in and out the narrow channel sweep up quantities of fish - sea turtles have been sighted far from the mouth - while the undisturbed inland reaches provide a breeding ground for crustaceans.

Significant numbers of wading birds winter in the sabkha - swampy shallows - of the khor. Socotra Cormorant, gulls, osprey and the Caspian tern are sighted while flamingos are occasional visitors.

Commercial fishing was banned in 1993 when Khor al-Udeid was declared an official sanctuary and anxious to preserve its pristine beauty, the government has outlawed all development.

Threats include recreational disturbance by campers and four-wheel drive vehicles but apart from the omnipresent threat of oil pollution in the Gulf, they are currently not serious problems, but require close monitoring.

Khor al-Udeid is 78 km south of capital Doha. Vehicles should drive in a convoy and carry water and spares.

c.Christine Osborne

Images: Khor al-Udeid entrance

Source: www.copix.co.uk