RUMI IN THE DESERT

A Retreat in the Tunisian Sahara
14 - 26 October 2010

with Wali and Ariënne van der Zwan,
and Alan Heeks

Calling all lovers!
It is time to break camp in this material world.
From the Universe, I hear the drum of departure calling me.
The driver was up long ago and prepared the camels.
- Rumi

Rumi's poems delight in the joys and mysteries of life, and so will this group. Travelling by foot and camel with wonderful Bedouin guides, resting under palm trees, sharing camp fires and starlit skies, this is a magical inner and outer journey.

Like Rumi, we will explore the Sufi path - an open-hearted outlook, seeing divine unity in all life, expressed through poetry, songs, wazifas (Arabic mantras), and dance. There will also be lots of free time for you to relax and make your own connection with the huge space, silence and beauty of the desert, and an option of 24 or 48 hours solo or retreat time.

Wali and Ariënne van der Zwan are leading international teachers in the Sufi Ruhaniat Order and of Dances of Universal Peace. Their approach embodies joy, delight and depth, and they have a particular love for Rumi. Wali and Ariënne are Dutch, living in Germany, and fluent in several languages - including the voice of the heart!

Alan Heeks has a deep passion for the desert’s spiritual traditions, Sufi, Christian and Islamic, and for the Sahara and its people. This will be the tenth journey he has organized with these Bedouin guides. He has co-led many vision quests and other groups, seeking alignment with nature and higher purpose. He is helping to create cohousing communities in England, and is the author of The Natural Advantage, a guide to organic growth for people and organisations.

For enquiries and bookings and further details, see below.

THE DESERT

The Sahara is vast, beautiful, tough and inspiring. It offers you a profound experience of wilderness, the space and silence to explore questions and renew yourself. The area in south-west Tunisia where we will be travelling is largely picture-book rolling sand dunes as well as gravel plains, scrub, and occasional date groves. Tunisia is a liberal Arab country that is politically stable, safe, and very welcoming to visitors.

THE BEDOUIN

The Bedouin who will guide us regularly assist retreat groups from Europe. They live partly nomadically, partly in a village near Douz. They own the camels that will transport our food and luggage, they will cook for us and help us adapt to the desert. Several speak French, so this is a rare chance to communicate directly with people still living in a land-based native tradition.

The Bedouin are profound teachers. Although their life is materially tough and basic, they are joyful people whose traditional culture is still strong. Their days really are a flowing dance uniting work, spirit, community and fun. Their songs move from praise of Allah through romantic ballads to children's play songs. Besides travelling in the desert with the Bedouin men we will also visit their village to meet the Bedouin families.

DESERT JOURNEYS

This will be the tenth desert journey that Alan has organized and co-led, so the arrangements are well proven. Our payments go direct to the Bedouin, and help support them since their traditional income sources have been eroded.

2010 RUMI IN THE DESERT ITINERARY

Note: the timing is designed so that you can use various charter or scheduled flights from different European cities. The core time is shown below. Before and after these dates we can help with hotel bookings, but you need to pay separately for this.

Thursday Oct 14: Transport will be provided from Djerba (minibus or 4x4, leaving 2pm) and from Tunis (train/taxi) to Douz, a lovely, friendly oasis town.

Friday October 15: First gathering as a group, time to buy desert clothing (burnus, chech etc). In afternoon, travel into the desert by 4x4 and then on foot with our Bedouin guides.

Saturday October 16th: Walking in the morning and afternoon, with a siesta. In late afternoon we arrive at Wainatraj, the semi-oasis where we stay for the next five nights.

Sunday October 17-Thurs Oct 21: Staying at Wainatraj, including the option of a 48 or 24 hour solo vigil time.

Friday October 22: Walking in the morning and afternoon, with a siesta. We will visit the ruins of the house and village where many of our Bedouin guides were born.

Saturday October 23: Walking in the morning, then saying goodbye to the Bedouin. After lunch, a short drive to Douz, with free time and showers! That evening, we travel to the house where some of our Bedouin guides live, and meet with the wives and children. This is always an unforgettable party!

Sunday October 24: In the morning, drive to Djerba, around four hours. Free afternoon. Staying in a lovely foundouk (former inn for camel caravans in the old town).

Monday October 25th: Free day in Djerba. Option of time on the beach. Celebratory dinner in evening.

Tuesday October 26: Group finishes.

COST and BOOKING

The price, including food, accommodation, and transport in Tunisia, is €690 or UK £630. Early bird discount of €50/£40 if you book and pay deposit by March 31, 2010. Some concessionary places are available. Initial deposit €140/£120.

The price includes transport, accommodation, Bedouin guides and most food, but excludes travel to and from Tunisia.

You will need your own travel and medical insurance, good sleeping bag and bivvy bag, and about €90/£80 to buy burnous, chech and meals en route.

Flights: if you want to fly from the UK, the expected cost is £332 - this includes return flights, London-Tunis, and a flight from Djerba to Tunis on October 26. This is with Tunis Air from Heathrow: you can travel out on Sunday October 10 or Tuesday October 12, returning to London about 5pm on October 26.

IMPRESSION OF AN EARLIER JOURNEY

Our caravan counts 21 participants, 22 camels and 8 Bedouin. We're tiny in the immense Sahara, but a caravan ten times as big would have been just as tiny. 'Sahera jamil, how beautiful the Sahara!' old Muhammad tells us. You bet he's right!

The Sahara is not only beautiful, she is also inescapable. Everything is brought back to its elementary state and impossible to ignore. We have to let go of our concepts. Washing with water? Sand cleanses too! By the very absence of water dirt doesn't stick. Our nails never were so clean.

The extreme absence or presence of the elements makes us aware of them more than ever. Without water everything is literally loose sand.

We knew this, but now it can be experienced, just by being in the desert. All we can do is go with the flow, accept what is coming and surrender to it. Concepts fall away and this way we are being cleaned inside too.

We sleep under the sky (a million star hotel) and wake up every morning before dawn by the call to prayer: ALLAHO AKBAR! The first light after the first prayer is an awesome experience, raising as if to illuminate the whole of nature, including us.

Not only the First Light, but the whole journey is a chosen chance to walk in the footsteps of people like the Prophet Muhammad, Abraham or Rumi, for didn't they live in comparable circumstances? Sure, the Bedouin have cell phones, but somehow time stands still here. Rumi would have seen sand and dunes everywhere, always the same and always changing. No wonder the image of the world as Unity expressing itself through Diversity started here: Le désert c'est monotheïsme, a French philosopher sighed in wonder and awe.

Every morning the Bedouin bake bread for us on the fire with ashes covering the bread. Afterwards the ashes are knocked off easily. No water, remember?

They don't eat themselves as we happen to be here in the month of Ramadan. In the evening it is their turn first and after that we eat couscous.

Then it's party time. Khaliefa tells us about life in the desert, other members of his tribe play drum (exciting rhythms: the Arabic culture meets Africa!) and sing ballads about Hinda, the local saintly woman buried somewhat further away, and Abdul Kadr, the Sufi Sheich honored here.

They don't see themselves as Sufis or Dervishes. A Dervish doesn't marry and in Tunisia Sufis are the people that you invite to make music for all sorts of festivities, weddings and so forth. No, they are proud to be Bedouin, people that never lose their way in the Desert (even in a sand storm they know their direction), live with camels and need space and freedom. Khaliefa prides himself in never seen a school from the inside. Yet he can read and write in Arabic and French and is by all standards a highly educated man.

Now they live in a town, for the oasis where they used to spend the hottest part of the summer has dried up. So the children do go to school. Khaliefa's father stayed in the desert, traveling with tent and camel. He cannot sleep between four walls.

Back home in the oasis Douz, a touristic town with all luxury, we take a shower and open our bags. All we see is sand, sand, sand. Someone says: 'I've seen enough sand for the time being!' I look at my partner and without words our thoughts go to the little bag of sand that we took with us for our home altar, for we cannot bear to go home with being able to see the sand.

For more information and pictures of previous trips, look around this website. There is also a DVD available of the 2007 trip: contact Arienne or Linda about this.

For enquiries and bookings from mainland Eastern or Western Europe, contact Ariënne or Wali at .

Click here for German version of this page (PDF)

For enquiries and bookings from UK and rest of world,
contact Linda Joyce at .

NEXT: Letter from the Desert