Emirati explorer travels 5,000km on horseback in last 7 years

Adnan Okasha, Staff Reporter

Tariq Ibrahim Al Salman, 58, an Emirati explorer and adventurer, travelled about 5,000 kilometres on horseback over the past seven years, while he embarked on exploration and adventure trips through 72 countries around the world during the past decades.

"The sense of exploration, passion for adventure, and love of horses led him to embark on his travels in a large number of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America," he said.

As part of his last trip, he visited Africa, where he spent eight days in Botswana and led a team of eight adventurers from the UAE, Australia, Britain, Spain, Poland, France and Germany, who were residing in the country, he said.

“In our last trip, from which we returned a few days ago, we covered 170 kilometers on horseback. We headed from Dubai to Johannesburg in South Africa, and from there to Botswana on a small plane,” he added.

Al Salman stated that he traveled to 72 countries, including a group of the world’s best countries for horse riding; namely, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, America, Mauritius, Romania, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Botswana, Turkey, Britain, India, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, South Africa, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Jordan, Georgia in addition to the UAE.

One of the most exciting aspects of Al Salman’s travels was the diverse environments he visited including forests, mountains, plains and coasts etc.

There, they used to spend about 10 hours a day on horseback, from sunrise to sunset, moving from one region to another, and from one camp to another to see animals in nature directly, where predatory and non-predatory animals, birds, reptiles, etc. live, he said.

He pointed out that all the camps in which they stayed had no walls and were vulnerable to predators. In one of them, they slept with lions close to them and in another, they slept near the river where elephants roamed near them at night, he said.

One of the challenges he faced on his travels was the lack of mobile phone networks and Wi-Fi in some isolated areas of the world, where people spent the night cut off from communication technologies and contemporary life, he added.

One of his several adventures and exploratory trips was on the back of camels, in which he traveled 100 kilometers in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan over 5 days, he said, adding that he also climbed Mount Everest in the Himalayas, in Nepal, in 12 days.

He also visited Latin America including the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) in Bolivia, Machu Picchu in Peru, the amazing waterfalls in Argentina and Brazil and the isolated areas in Gabon in Africa, he said.