The Arabian desert by hot air balloon, vintage Land Rover and Bedouin camp

[Action music] Welcome to the empty quarter. It's far from empty [Theme music] Today's adventure we're going on a quest to find out what's really in the empty quarter the largest uninterrupted body of sand in the world that rests beneath our feet here in the UAE [Arabic music] It's a harsh landscape and I wanted to know what lives here, and how do people come to inhabit these parts. So to start off our adventure I went to see how vast the desert really is and there's only one way to do that [Sound of fire] My name is Hylker. I'm your pilot and it is safety breathing so very important The most important thing during the flight is, stay always in the basket So you might be wondering what are we doing at 5am in the middle of

the Margham desert? Well behind me the hot air balloons are just getting filled up with cold air right now and then they'll start pumping it full of hot air and we'll get the call, got to jump in the balloon very quickly because it takes off and then we're going to see the beautiful sunrise over the Arabian desert [Groovy Music] [Sound of fire burning] [Arabic Music] Well it looks like we're going up [Fire burning] Okay captain Hylker you're our captain for today So yeah for today yes Are takeoff's always that exciting Yeah it was quite normal. It's it looking a little bit wind but that's yeah So what can we expect to see today and what are we flying over? Of course sand, because it's above the desert, lots of desert but there is still you

can see a lot of green here in the desert so but it's still there is water here. But if you head that side, that's a Dubai desert conversation reserve and there are the Oryx the Arabian Oryx are running there and the gazelles probably we can see the gazelles here in this part of the desert but I'm not sure So now we're flying with a falcon. We're sharing the airspace of the falcons Just see how he's circling around a balloon. And there he goes ziggy's off flying My name is Hendrik Du Toit and I'm a falconer Here we've got ziggy and ziggy is a male peregrine falcon and your peregrine falcons are your fastest animals on the planet so a lot of people think the cheetah is but that's your fastest land animal. Now the fastest

speed that's been recorded for a falcon is 389 kilometers an hour, but as with falcons they go up high and they stoop down and that's when they get incredible speed so use gravity as an engine Good morning ziggy. This is basically the same type of birds the bedouins use for hunting out in the desert to supplement the diet or some fresh meat some protein There we go dude. Okay so once again it's just focus on the food So other big wildlife we can get out in the desert the most prominent one is the Arabian oryx which is also the national animal of the country while of falcons the national bird. If you want to get a visual picture go look on a 50 dirham banknote, that's where you get a picture of the oryx as

a big white antelope long straight horns and it's also sort of where the myth of the unicorn originates from the Arabian oryx because of this white animal with the long horns on its head Another antelopes we get out here is your two gazelle species your Arabian mountain gazelle which is the common gazelle species and then we also get your sand gazelle which is a little bit more rare. That we get so that's some of your biggest wildlife antelopes we get out here Some of your nocturnal creatures it's your foxes. We get two types of foxes out here We get your Arabian red fox and then we also get a sand foxes like a small little dog fox we get out, very cute as well. But very shy and very skittish we don't see them often

How do we steer this thing? No actually not because the crew forgot again the steering wheel. Now we can use wind layers. I'm climbing up very fast because that's our landing spot's over there. Low flying is going to left I don't want to miss it. Go up a little bit and there is today wind drifting a little bit to the right Now that my feet were firmly back on the ground I wanted to see how the animals that live here had adapted to their harsh environment. So I went to Maha Conservation Reserve to find out more about the animals that live here Good morning! Good morning Sir. How are you? Very good thank you Nice to meet you and what's your name? Gert. Paris. Nice to meet you. Now I see you've got a Land

Rover as well 1950s indeed. Alright, we'll take yours. Let's go [Arabic music] Seat belts here for safety [Sound of door lamming and engine starting] [Sound of car driving] So I notice you're dressed in traditional gear and we've taken out a 50s Land Rover. So what's all that about? So with us the most important thing is history My name is Gert Nel, I'm a conservation guide here for platinum heritage So if you look at the Omani scout uniform that we're having, if you look at the vintage Land Rovers, all is part of the history of the UAE trucial states. With a uniform there was just a handful of people that actually got the uniform. They were the peacekeepers as well With the Land Rovers, even with Omani scouts they used the Land Rovers to go from

area to area Especially deeper into the desert, fresher goods you know building the community up to where it is today it is super important. So most people the first thing they think about it in desert wise is just sand, but if you do sustainability if you conservation you will find all of the nature around. You will find the Arabian oryx, you find the gazelles, you'll find all of the shrubs, and with all of that comes your smaller little animals and 80% of your desert animals are nocturnal so they only come out during the night, and for them they need someplace to hide, not just the sand they need shrubs to keep that sand intact to hide underneath [Arabian music] Wow so it's really slippery looking Yeah it has scales instead of skin, and it has

a spoon-like nose So can you just explain just what it is? What's it called? It's a sand fish Sand fish? So it's called a fish but it's actually a lizard yeah spoon-like fingers nose is like a shovel, and vibrates his head super quickly to go underneath the sand Right and so it just goes under the surface of the sand? yeah it can go up to three meters underneath the sand Up to three meters deep? So the fact that you saw this one was quite a bit of luck really Yeah indeed They're called sandfish but they're actually lizards. So so they can go three meters deep into the sand Yeah so they vibrate their heads super quickly yeah and they have spoon-like noses, spoon fingers and then have scales makes it easier to swim underneath the

sand Right and so what do they eat? They eat little insects, so they're also carnivorous sometimes as well but mostly just insects so whatever they can find around So digging under the water is more about hiding from things are they actually catching, sorry did i say water yeah they're not fish they're lizards. So hiding under the sand is actually a form of protection for them Yeah so that's the escape route, because you saw when it ran off, it's not super quick so something can actually quickly grab it if they need to, so the best way to go is down Right so up on the top to find insects to eat, and then to hide from predators, down that's escaped route. Incredible! Talk about adapting to your environment, humans have lived here for thousands of years

as well. How did they survive? I bet you I can find out some information over at the bedouin camp and hopefully I'll get some breakfast too [Arabic pipe music] So what got you into conservation I mean this is obviously your job, but I can see it's your passion as well, so what what keeps you going? What keeps me going? Nature's beautiful if you just sit down for five minutes I guarantee you it will blow your mind My biggest thing that caught me is the little creatures running around. The smaller the better and it works up to the big ones as well, if you take your big animals over here the Arabian oryx even if you just sit and watch them, watch their patterns and stuff, unique super unique Well that was a day and a

half so I'll save some energy for the next adventure, and I'll see you then [Arabic music]