I travelled in a caravan whose leader was [ ]…After twenty five days we reached [ ]…It is a village with no attractions…There are no trees, only sand…
-Travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 1325-1354, Vol. IV, edited by H.A.R.Gibb
I felt differently about the village, although Ibn Battuta by the time he wrote these lines about crossing the Sahara had already travelled 75,000 miles over thirty years. This was my first trip up the Darb with KhairAllah, and when we reached the ‘Idd Ahmad well flats in about the same number of days, I found the water we drew and the mutton we ate to be very attractive, in fact, Worthy of a Detour