Chapter 1 Wahiba
　　The Wahiba Sands – a soft sand desert in northeastOman. Two hundred kilometers from north tosouth; a hundred from east to west. Long dunes runnorth to south, long lines of sand, always changing,always moving in the wind.
　　On its west side, Wahiba is a long wall of red sand,fi fty or sixty meters high. It runs slowly down on tothe empty desert, which is the center of Oman. Hard,stony and fl at as a table, this desert is the eastern sideof the great rub‘ al-khali, the Empty Quarter.
　　In the east, the dunes of sand run down on to long,empty beaches. Crabs and seabirds live there byday, and green turtles often come out of the sea tolay their eggs by night. After the beaches, there isonly the deep blue-green water of the Arabian Seafor fifteen hundred kilometers to Gujarat in northernIndia.
　　The sands of Wahiba are empty and quiet. There isno sound. Nothing bigger than a lizard can live in thegreat sea of soft, red-gold sand; nothing bigger thanmarram grass can grow there. You hear nothing butthe blood in your ears, and the hot dry air going in and out of your mouth.
　　To walk in the soft sand is difficult. It pulls yourfeet as you walk. Your legs soon hurt and you gettired very quickly. To move at all is hard work.
　　And, of course, in the day the hot sun is alwaysthere. The air is hot, the sand is hot. There is nowhereyou can go away from the sun, no tree as far as youcan see.
　　In the sky above the blue-green Indian Ocean, asmall plane is coming from the east. Red and white,two engines, the only sound in the quiet sky.
　　第1章　沃希拜
　　沃希拜沙漠——阿曼東北部的一片軟沙沙漠，南北長(zhǎng)兩百公里，東西寬一百公里。綿長(zhǎng)的沙丘從北向南蔓延，長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的沙紋，總在變化，時(shí)刻在風(fēng)中移動(dòng)。
　　沃希拜沙漠的西邊，是五六十米高、墻一般的長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的紅沙帶。紅沙帶緩緩走低，落入空曠的荒漠，那里便是阿曼的腹地。這片荒漠堅(jiān)硬多石，平如桌面，屬于“空曠之地”——魯卜哈利大沙漠的東端。
　　東邊，沙丘伸至長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的空曠海灘。白天螃蟹和海鳥(niǎo)在那里生活，夜晚綠龜常從海里出來(lái)產(chǎn)蛋。海灘之外，只有阿拉伯海碧藍(lán)的水面，綿延一千五百公里，直達(dá)印度北部的古吉拉特邦。
　　沃希拜沙漠空曠而寂靜，毫無(wú)聲息。沒(méi)有什么比蜥蜴大的生物可以在那片廣袤、綿軟的金紅色沙海中生存；沒(méi)有什么比濱草大的植物可以在那里生長(zhǎng)。除了耳朵里流動(dòng)的血液和出入口腔的干熱氣息，什么都聽(tīng)不到。
　　在軟沙中行走十分困難。行走時(shí)沙子拽著你的腳，不一會(huì)兒腿就發(fā)疼，你很快就疲憊了，哪怕挪一下都很費(fèi)力。
　　當(dāng)然了，白天炙熱的太陽(yáng)一直掛在那兒。空氣是熱的，沙子是熱的。你沒(méi)有地方可以去躲避太陽(yáng)，連棵樹(shù)的影子都看不到。
　　在碧藍(lán)的印度洋的上空，一架小型飛機(jī)正由東飛來(lái)。飛機(jī)紅白相間，雙引擎，是寂靜的天空中唯一的聲音。