Three evenings in one week of September, each two hours from 6 to 8 in the evening, and each about a different part of Kuwait itself: its plants and birds, its sea and coral, and its ground and how to read it. The programme is by “Sukoon”, a seasonal series running to 30 September.
The three dates
- Tuesday 1 September — “Your land and your sky”: wild plants, animals and migratory birds.
- Thursday 3 September — “Shuaib and Shaab”: the tide of life, coral and turtles in Kuwait.
- Saturday 5 September — “Reading the land”: electronic maps.
All three run from 6 to 8 in the evening.
“Reading the land” is the most practical
This is not a nature talk but a lesson in planning a desert trip. The published content covers understanding coordinates, saving and sharing them, the difference between their formats, reading contour lines and elevations to identify slopes, wadis and low ground, and using satellite imagery, road maps and terrain layers together rather than relying on one map.
Then the part that matters to anyone actually camping: the relationship between the shape of the sand and the wind direction and how it decides where to camp; reading the shore for tide, mud and wind direction; downloading maps for use without internet; saving the start, return and rendezvous points; and the difference between a planned route and the route actually recorded during the trip. It ends with a trip plan covering distance, time, ground type, fuel, light, hazards and the turnaround point.
The content is built on a booklet of the same name, and the evening applies leave-no-trace principles: carrying waste out, avoiding vegetation and sensitive habitats, keeping to a clear track, and minimising digging and churning.
And the other two
Your land and your sky picks creatures, birds or plants from Kuwait’s own nature at each station and tells their story: how they live, their role in the environment, and why their presence matters to the balance. Participants then turn what they learned into a simple piece of artwork, and leave with two stickers drawn from the station.
Shuaib and Shaab is an evening on the dynamics of Gulf water in Kuwait: tides, shallow coastal habitats, seasonal movement, coral reefs and sea turtles. It uses maps, images, discussion and selected non-living teaching samples.
What the announcement does not say
No price is announced for any of the three, no venue address appears on the event page, and no age is specified. Contact and booking are by email at info@almaknoonretreat.com; ask about the location and the price before booking a slot on a working day.
Source: the events pages on the official “Visit Kuwait” site.
Photo: arfaj flowering in the Kuwaiti desert, a photograph from the 1980s. By Salwa Farwaneh Dameh, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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