Desert Venture

This Desert Venture/Survival course will take you to the Arabian Deserts made famous by the movie Lawrence of Arabia. Sat in the south of Jordan, North of the Red Sea and to the East of the Jordan valley this is where the sand dune deserts collide with their sandstone mountain cousins.

Initial training and acclimatisation will take place near the old city of Petra, where we’ll ride Arab horses (no riding experience necessary at all) and see Old Petra from a way no tourist can these days. From Petra we move deep into the desert of Wadi Rum, start to learn how to drive 4×4 vehicles and trek, navigate, rappel and live in this beautiful, but harsh, environment.

Desert Venture and Survival

Eventually the training will be behind you and, for several days, you will be placed in a simulated survive and escape situation as part of a small group. With just the basics in terms of survival kit and very little water or food, you will have to navigate your way out of the desert, by night, to safety, covering the same distance same as you would running a marathon. We call this the Long Drag (named after the final walk on SAS Selection test week), and you will be faced with a great number of difficulties. The practical problems of daily existence are tough enough to cope with, but the psychological difficulties presented by not having modern luxuries, of being in a strange environment, of little water, of a lack of sleep, of an arduous environment and of the physical demands presented by an incredibly hard walk make it even harder … think you can cope?

If you’re interested in our desert survival experiences, and would like to know when the next Desert Venture trip is taking place, have a look at our Dates & Costs page. We’ve also put together a guide explaining how to survive in the dessert; have a read through the post for some early inspiration!