In the days after the end of the expedition the team have dispersed and travelled home. Nigel to the Lake District in England, Ana-Maria to Switzerland, Dikra and Ibrahim to their families in Oman. But before they left, Mark, took a moment to get them all to look back on the expedition, their personal highlights, and the things that have really struck them about the drive for a more sustainable and biodiverse in this beautiful country.

There are wonderful stories of wildlife, of communication, of warm welcoming hospitality, or natural beauty and much much more.

As the Jewel of Arabia now looks towards education and legacy, It was perhaps Ibrahim who summed it all up so well… The Jewel of Arabia isn’t just the journey, it’s the message.

Now the physical expedition has drawn to an end the legacy and engagement aspects of the Jewel of Arabia ramp up.

Over the last 3 days Mark and the team have spoken to over 1,500 young Omani’s about the expedition, how they have been following it, but most importantly, how they will look to the future from what they have learnt.

To find out what young people have been learning Mark visited the Knowledge Gate International school in Muscat where he was welcomed by 600 super enthusiastic pupils and the bagpipes.

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Mark and the team have arrived at their destination, the 2nd city of Oman, Salalah. The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of visits from students from British School Salalah, joining The British Council hackathon and something very special captured on the daily trail cameras set near their overnight campsites.

In amongst all of this, the team were formally received in Salalah by His Highness Sayyid Marwan Al Said, Governor of Dhofar. In front of a local audience, including His Excellency Salim Al Mahrouqi, Minister of Heritage and Tourism and His Excellency Azzan Al Busaidi, Undersecretary Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, Mark talked the guests through the expedition and the remarkable sights and sounds of sustainability and biodiversity the team found in Oman.

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On the last walking day of the expedition, the team followed Thomas’s diary notes to trace his route down into Wadi Darbat, Which during the monsoon season becomes raging torrent of a river. Of course, this amount of water brings with it life. So after the team had scrambled and crawled their way down to the wadi bed through thick thorny undergrowth, they were treated with the sight of azure blue river pools that teemed with fish life and so also attracting a huge variety of birdlife too. A very special place to visit as they approach Salalah.

Every night Mark has been setting a camera trap. See some of what they have captured on the Expedition Instagram, but last night was very special when the camera caught an Arabian wolf eating some leftover lamb carcass left as bait.

In the Dhofar mountains the team are deep in Arabian leopard territory, to round up this episode Mark describes a multinational reintroduction programme for the Arabian leopard.

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Now in the southern region of Oman, Mark and the Jewel of Arabia team have arrived in the region Bertram Thomas referred to as Arabia Felix. Mark describes this as one of his favourite places in the world.

The landscape has changed from rough, rocky and arid desert to rich, lush green, almost tropical looking . The wildlife has changed too, they caught the first bat on their camp trail camera last night. In was a treeless landscape apart from a few acacia and frankincense trees today the team visited the largest living land species in Oman, giant baobab trees at Wadi Hanna. This landscape couldn’t be more different from the sands of The Empty Quarter where the team were just a few days ago.

It is very easy to see why Thomas referred to this area of Oman as Arabia Felix.

And as the expedition starts to near its end point of Salalah, Marks looks ahead to the welcome and visits planned for the next few days.

Expedition website: The Jewel of Arabia Expedition

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Oman lies on a major migratory flyway between Arabia and Asia. It is also blessed with a huge diversity of indigenous birdlife. But for many species over many years, the easiest and most abundant source of food was found at landfill sites.

For many reasons this wasn’t ideal. But furthermore as Oman has reduced the amount and type of waste sent to landfill there was a consequential knock on effect to many, some critically endangered, species.

The solution has been to develop a series of so called “raptor resturants”. Where food and food industry waste can be set out in secure areas for bird species to come and feed on.

The mutual benefits to humans and birdlife is huge as Mark found out when he spoke to Ahmed Al Zubair a Senior Sustainability Strategist behind the birdlife buffets

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Spread across 3,500 acres in Oman’s Dhofar region, Wadi Dawqah is home to the world’s largest protected Boswellia sacra forest, a place where thousands of frankincense trees have flourished over the centuries. This is where the most sustainable, ethical and transparent source of frankincense begins its thousand-year-old journey into the world.

After visiting the site, Mark talks to Matt Wright about the vision for the future of sustainable frankincense and creating the world’s first smart forest.

The Land of Frankincense World Heritage Site

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From the edge of the Rub’ al Khali Mark tells the story of the ancient lost city of Ubar, the legendary lost city in the largest sand desert on earth. In his previous expedition, The Heart of Arabia, Mark retraced Philby’s effort to find Ubar, which ultimately failed, but considering the significance of the place, the Jewel of Arabia team wanted to visit some of the possible locations.

Possible locations, because Philby wasn’t the only British explorer to have searched for Ubar, T. E Lawrence, Thomas, Thesinger and Ranulph Fiennes have all made efforts to find the Atlantis of the Sands.

It was during Fiennes search that artefacts were discovered, and excavations began. Mark and the team were given a guided tour of the site as it is today from some local guides.

Ubar was significant because it was the last guaranteed watering hole for camels on the trade routes before heading into the Rub al Kahli. But, climate change and human extraction mean that today the well is dry.

The icing on today’s cake though was to meet an old Bedouin friend who had a photograph of himself travelling with Wilfred Thesinger along the same route.

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The Jewel of Arabia Expedition podcast is produced by Adventurous Audio