Outward Bound Oman
Tahaddi Extreme kicks
off tomorrow

Eight young people from the Sultanate have been selected for
an epic 100km challenge through the Rub Al Khali this month

Approaching the summit
of high dune in Oman

View looking north from
the summit of the third
highest dune in Oman

Scorpions will be ever
present companions
throughout the journey

Tahaddi Extreme
kicks off tomorrow

Outward Bound Oman/Tahaddi, the country’s leading personal development organisation yesterday revealed details of their latest challenge for Omani youth. Since running its first course in October 2009, Outward Bound has organised ten courses for young people from government and international schools on Al Jabal al Akdhar and in the deserts of Al Abyad and Sharqiya, in addition to running teambuilding courses for leading organisations in the corporate sector such as Standard Chartered Bank.

On Monday, January 11, the next course is due to begin. Supported by MB Holdings, Oman Mobile and Omantel, a team of eight young people will assemble at Haima, in Al Wusta region, to attempt a 100 km journey on foot through the Rub Al Khali, with the aim of reaching the summit of the third highest sand dune in Oman. The Rub Al Khali is considered to be the largest sand desert on earth, where temperatures in the summer reach 55 degrees Celsius, but in winter drop to near freezing.

The challenge, which may last for up to ten days, will use the outdoor environment to physically and mentally challenge the young participants and help them develop key life skills sought by employers. Eight young people have been selected from numerous applicants; Abad al Habsi from Muscat, Shabib al Balushi from Seeb, Assad al Balushi from Seeb, Hamad al Thahli from Bilad Sayt, Mohammed al Habsi from Buraimi, Ayman al Riyami from Nizwa, Said al Balushi from Sur and Saif al Mamry from Rustaq will all have to draw upon their teamwork, initiative, communication and perseverance skills to succeed and reach their goal.

Joining the team will be leading Lonely Planet photographer Phil Weymouth from Bahrain, and, fresh back from an expedition to the Amazon jungle, video producer Jacki Hill-Smith from the UK. The journey will be led by Outward Bound Oman instructor Mohammed al Zadjali. At the end of each day’s journey, the team will send an update and images to the media via a satellite connection, enabling people to follow their progress. The daily updates will be posted onto the website www.outwardboundoman.com, where the public will also have an opportunity to send messages of encouragement to the team.

Mark Evans, General Manager of Outward Bound Oman, said: “There is a tremendous appetite amongst young people here in Oman to do something like this. On all of our courses the young people have welcomed the opportunity to get something different onto their CV, and to make the most of an opportunity to challenge themselves, and step out of their comfort zones. The young people on this course are outstanding individuals, all of whom have the potential to become effective leaders in the future.

These young people are normal individuals who have grasped the opportunity to do something out of the ordinary, and they are outstanding role models for society.” Outward Bound Oman is a not-for-profit educational initiative dedicated to using the outdoors to develop the life skills of young people in Oman. It was set up in May 2009 by the founding partners BG Oman, Denton Wilde Sapte, Shell and Suhail Bahwan. More information on the Tahaddi Extreme project, including the team members, can be found at www.outwardboundoman.com

The Outward Bound Oman/Tahaddi initiative is a first for the Middle East region, recognising the importance of training and development for local people, and supporting the commitment by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, to develop the nation’s human resources in accordance with Oman’s Vision 2020.

On the roof of Africa

‘I know that I must do what is right, As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti’
                                                                                                                                    — Lyrics from “Africa” by Toto

In fact, Kili rises a lot further than Olympus, and at 5,895m is almost 3,000 meters higher. It is the highest mountain on the African continent, but as an extinct volcano with a gentle gradient, it is also the highest mountain in the world that you can ascend without doing any mountaineering! And so, just before Christmas, my brother and I set off for Tanzania, aiming to achieve what apparently 50 per cent of people who attempt it, can’t do…reach the summit at Uhuru Peak.

The difficulty in climbing Kilimanjaro can be distilled into two similar words…altitude and attitude. A lot of failures are a result of fatigue or altitude sickness due to the thin air, but been more are a result of tourists on holiday, who underestimate the task, and are unaware or unwilling to suffer the discomfort and strenuous effort required. Many of these will give up one or two days into the trek to continue their holiday in comfort…and I don’t blame them!

When deciding to go, there are 2 decisions to make. Which route to take, and which guide company to use. The rule, as with most mountains, is that a local mountain guide must accompany any climber, and so there are hundreds of guides, and companies to choose from. Some will provide porters to carry your bags, and chefs to cook your food, and others will just provide the guide, and as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.

There are also several routes, namely, Marangu, Rongai, Lemosho, Shira, Umbwe and Machame. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. I settled on the Machame route for one simple reason. It had the highest success rate. The profile of the Machame route meant we had to spend more time at altitude, which meant more time to acclimatise. And this was the biggest factor in my mind. The endurance required was never a doubt in my mind, as I have done much longer and tougher, and the cold at the summit wasn’t a factor as it was unlikely to compare to the North Pole. But how I would cope with the thin air above 3,000m was an unknown, and therefore a concern.

The other concern was my brother. He had never done anything like this before, so everything would be a steep learning curve for him, from walking several hours a day, to sleeping in a tent. But the one thing he had abundance of was attitude. Two days into the trek he got mild food poisoning and was very sick. He was in a lot of pain, and had a fever, but he stumbled along for 9 hours, never giving up. I was with him every step of the way, mentally pulling or pushing him the whole way, but apart from the occasional assistance, it was all his own work. And he has every reason to be proud of his perseverance and accomplishment. After those two days of illness, I knew he would have no problem getting to the top.

After 5 days trekking, we reached Barafu camp, which was our last stop before our summit attempt. We went to bed early to be woken just before midnight. In pitch black, we followed our guide and the tens of twinkling lights from the head torches of all the other climbers also making their way to Uhuru. This was actually the only time that I got into real trouble, and it was due to the cold, something I had been complacent about. During the trek to the North Pole, I had developed a cold injury on my left big toe, and twice on the climb up, I had to stop and revive it, for fear of losing it to frostbite.

But 8 hours after setting out, we were on the roof of Africa, and it was a great moment for everyone there. People who were in agony moments earlier were all laughs and smiles as they took photos. And no one enjoyed their triumph more than my brother, who really had to dig deep into his reserves of willpower to make it through the second and third day.

And as for me…well, my mind was never on Kilimanjaro...it was firmly fixed on Mount Vinson in the Antarctic. This trip was never really my goal, only a stepping stone in my preparation for a mountain that less than 1,400 people have ever climbed, roughly half the number that has climbed Mount Everest…but for a few moments, it was good to relax and savour our triumph on the roof of Africa.

Tales of great Amazon civilisation true

_ By Rory Carroll  _

Huge geometrical mounds in jungle suggest
an ancient culture to rival the Aztecs

have revealed more than 200 huge geometric earthworks carved in the upper Amazon basin near Brazil’s border with Bolivia. Spanning 155 miles, the circles, squares and other geometric shapes form a network of avenues, ditches and enclosures built long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the new world. Some date to as early as 200 AD, others to 1283. Scientists who have mapped the earthworks believe there may be another 2,000 structures beneath the jungle canopy, vestiges of vanished societies.

The structures, many of which have been revealed by the clearance of forest for agriculture, point to a “sophisticated pre-Columbian monument-building society”, says the journal Antiquity, which has published the research. The article adds: “This hitherto unknown people constructed earthworks of precise geometric plan connected by straight orthogonal roads. The ‘geoglyph culture’ stretches over a region more than 250km across, and exploits both the floodplains and the uplands ... we have so far seen no more than a tenth of it.”

The structures were created by a network of trenches about 11 metres wide and several feet deep, lined by banks up to a metre high. Some were ringed by low mounds containing ceramics, charcoal and stone tools. It is thought they were used for fortifications, homes and ceremonies, and could have maintained a population of 60,000 — more people than in many medieval European cities. The discoveries have demolished ideas that soils in the upper Amazon were too poor to support extensive agriculture, says Denise Schaan, a co-author of the study and anthropologist at the Federal University of Para, in Belem, Brazil. She told National Geographic: “We found this picture is wrong. And there is a lot more to discover in these places, it’s never-ending. Every week we find new structures.”

Many of the mounds were symmetrical and slanted to the north, prompting theories that they had astronomical significance. Researchers were especially surprised that earthworks in floodplains and uplands were of a similar style, suggesting they were all built by the same culture. “In Amazonian archaeology you always have this idea that you find different peoples in different ecosystems,” said Schaan. “So it was odd to have a culture that would take advantage of different ecosystems and expand over such a large region.” The first geometric shapes were spotted in 1999 but it is only now, as satellite imagery and felling reveal sites, that the scale of the settlements is becoming clear.

Some anthropologists say the feat, requiring sophisticated engineering, canals and roads, rivals Egypt’s pyramids. The findings follow separate discoveries further south, in the Xingu region, of interconnected villages known as “garden cities”. Dating between 800 and 1600, they included houses, moats and palisades. “These revelations are exploding our perceptions of what the Americas really looked liked before the arrival of Christopher Columbus,” said David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z, a book about an attempt in the 1920s to find signs of Amazonian civilizations.

“The discoveries are challenging long-held assumptions about the Amazon as a Hobbesian place where only small primitive tribes could ever have existed, and about the limits the environment placed on the rise of early civilisations.” They are also vindicating, said Grann, Percy Fawcett, the Briton who led the expedition to find the City of Z. Fawcett’s party vanished, bequeathing a mystery and partly inspiring Conan Doyle’s book The Lost World. Many scientists saw the jungle as too harsh to sustain anything but small nomadic tribes. Now it seems the conquistadores who spoke of “cities that glistened in white” were telling the truth. They, however, probably also introduced the diseases that wiped out the native people, leaving the jungle to claim — and hide — all trace of their civilisation.

Charlie Chaplin to be animated star

_ By Phil Hazlewood in Mumbai  _

production houses, including Nickelodeon, The Disney Group, Cartoon Network and a host of international broadcasters. The Indian firm has a 20 per cent stake in Method and has previously worked with them on computer-animated adaptations of French children’s classics Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) and Le Petit Nicolas (Little Nicolas).

MK2 is one of France’s biggest independent film companies and owns the international rights to the Chaplin films, which it has restored and reissued on DVD and in cinemas. The Chaplin estate gave its permission for the project, which MK2 hopes will allow new generations to discover the comic genius. India’s Business Standard newspaper said on Thursday that funds for the projects will be raised by a share offering from DQ Entertainment. The financial daily said DQ hoped to raise 1.5 billion rupees by divesting nearly 25 per cent of the company’s equity in an initial public offering.

An additional 620 million rupees would be raised from internal sources and bank loans, it added. Animation and special effects have become a growth market in India, as the domestic film industry, including Bollywood, turns to more modern production methods. The trend has led to the creation of a number of specialist companies, who are being increasingly used by Hollywood and other foreign studios because of their lower costs. Home-grown computer-generated television series based on Hindu epics like Ramayana and The Mahabharat have proved popular.

Disney worked with India’s Yash Raj Films last year on a full-length animation feature, Roadside Romeo, although the movie flopped at the box office. India’s animation and special effects industry is expected to be worth 23.3 billion rupees this year and is expected to grow to 39.4 billion rupees by 2013, consultants KPMG said last year. — AFP

Each pound at birth lowers risk of developing TB

Beware of kitchen spoons when administering syrups

Beware of innocuous kitchen spoons — they can be unwittingly dangerous, especially when administering liquid medicine. Former cold and flu sufferers were asked to pour one teaspoon of nighttime flu medicine into kitchen spoons of differing sizes. Depending upon the size of the spoon, 195 former patients poured an average of eight percent too little or 12 per cent too much medicine. “When pouring into a medium-size tablespoon, participants under-dosed.

But when using a larger spoon, they poured too much medicine,” said Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, who led the study. “Twelve percent more may not sound like a lot, but this goes on every four to eight hours, for up to four days,” Wansink explained. “So, it really adds up to the point of ineffectiveness or even danger.” In his book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, Wansink shows how smaller plates can unknowingly decrease how much people eat, and how taller glasses can decrease the amount of alcohol poured by even expert bartenders.

“Simply put, we cannot always trust our ability to estimate amounts,” said study co-author, Koert van Ittersum, marketing assistant professor at Georgia Tech. “In some cases it may not be important, but when it comes to the health of you or your child, it is vital to make an accurate measurement,” added Ittersum. Wansink and van Ittersum recommend using a proper device — a measuring cap or dropper, or dosing spoon or syringe — to measure liquid medicine, says a Cornell release. These findings were published in the January issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.