Arita Baaijens

Tales of the desert

Explorer Arita Baaijens takes us from the picturesque Westvestkerk to the mighty Sahara desert. What does the absence of stimuli in the desert do to the mind? What do camels teach us about earthly graft and survival? Baaijens: “My early days in the desert also marked the end of an era. The desert was completely empty and you could really disappear from the radar.”

Baaijens studied biology in Amsterdam. She exchanged her job as an environmental biologist for an uncertain adventure in the Egyptian desert. She was the only Western woman to travel the Sahara for fifteen years with her own caravan of camels.