Hunting, camping, survival skills in the desert?

Jason

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Growing up (and a teensy bit from military service) I was taught basic hunting, camping, and survival skills for the environments we've lived in, those being wilderness, water, and urban environments. So, things like how to hunt, how to gather water, what berries and leaves are safe to eat, how to read a compass, etc. - all the stereotypical kinda stuff I've picked up from my own experience.

That said, I have a character in a WIP I am actually making good progress on about to engage on a desert trek (think Iran, Middle East kind of geography, and in an era where we don't have modern conveniences of things like Pure Straws, collapsible backpacks, waterproof tents and butane camp stoves. So, could use some tips/tricks for hunting, camping, survival, and such with rudimentary technology available - think circa 1800's kind of technology in one of the few environments I've never really explored.

Any personal experiences here - or resources I could go to in order to make sure my character's experiences are accurate for the period and geography?

Tks in advance :)
 
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M Louise

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You might like to look at the published correspondence of Gertrude Bell who traveled (often alone) across Greater Syria and Mesopotamia in the years before WWII. And Wilfred Thesiger’s travels might be a good way to understand the hardships for anyone from the West involved in surviving these inhospitable isolated parts of the world: two travel books: Arabian Sands (1959), which recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedu; and The Marsh Arabs (1964), which is an account of the Madan, the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq.

This probably goes without saying but you might want to think about Orientalism and inauthentic representations of the desert by Western travellers. A couple of years ago I came across a considerable body of Arab travel accounts from the Early Ottoman Empire, Ibn Baua, Ibn Battuta and al- ahāwī. Very different perceptions and difficulties.

Though I don't know the Middle East outside of a few cities, I've travelled around the Namib, Sudan and Sahara in Africa and encountering desert places can be life-changing.
 

Snitchcat

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You've probably you considered researching the lifestyle of nomads or Bedouin in the 19th century, right? if not, perhaps the following links might be good starting points:

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bedouin
http://www.enhg.org/alain/phil/bedouin/bedouin.htm
http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/people1.html
https://global.britannica.com/place/Arabian-Desert/People << excerpt only, but can be a start.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Nomad << a very broad overview of nomads all over the world, but perhaps something in here might be helpful?
 

Jason

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Awesome info/links already - tyvm :)
 

neandermagnon

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You've probably you considered researching the lifestyle of nomads or Bedouin in the 19th century, right? if not, perhaps the following links might be good starting points:

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bedouin
http://www.enhg.org/alain/phil/bedouin/bedouin.htm
http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/people1.html
https://global.britannica.com/place/Arabian-Desert/People << excerpt only, but can be a start.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Nomad << a very broad overview of nomads all over the world, but perhaps something in here might be helpful?

Seconding this recommendation. Before the invention of motor vehicles that were capable of surviving the desert heat (most can't, even most modern vehicles can't*) the only people who were able to travel across the Arabian desert were the Bedouin.


*I used to live in Saudi Arabia, and most car brands can't withstand the hot, dry, very dusty climate. Toyota, Nissan or Chevrolet are the main brands over there. It may be a stereotype - Saudis driving silver Toyotas - but that's the best car for the climate (silver to reflect the heat). In the summer, it was 50+ centigrade heat, throughout the middle part of the day, every day, for months. Your car breaking down on the highway in midsummer is a potentially life-threatening situation, because no engine = no air conditioning and you have no shelter as your car will literally turn into an oven. (That said, Saudis are very hospitable and charitable so they won't drive past without helping anyone stranded like that.)

Even modern Saudis have quite a nocturnal lifestyle, i.e. no-one goes out in the sun around midday, except for men doing essential maintenance work (and mad dogs and Englishmen). People start to go out after asr time (mid afternoon prayers) when the sun is low in the sky, and the shops stay open until about 11pm. People will go out in the early morning. Lunch "hour" is usually about 3-4 hrs. That's modern Saudi culture. It reflects the traditional culture though. And from a survival point of view, adopting a somewhat nocturnal culture is a very good idea, i.e. active when it's cooler and sleeping/resting in the shade (Bedouin style tent if you don't have air conditioning) when it's hotter.
 
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Jason

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Great stuff all - made sense about the early morning and late evening lifestyle, but always good to get validation from the community here. Specific details I'm wanting to get validated go along with the stage of life in a pre-industrial era. Things like:

collecting water
hunting for food
safe plants
food preparation
creating shade