Emirati Jalal Bin Thaneya completed a 14 day trek across the UAE on foot. His journey was done to help raise awareness for special needs and was supposed to be completed in 7 days as per his agreement with the Guinness Book of World Records. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
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00:0030-year-old Emirati Jalal bin Thania has come to the Saudi-UAE border in windswept Al Guaifat
00:10to begin his latest journey, an attempt to cross every emirate in just 7 days on foot.
00:14So it's Tuesday today and I'm going to start my journey.
00:19I'm going to try and cover 100km from here. This is the Saudi-UAE border.
00:26It's very cold. I didn't get much sleep last night.
00:29He started out at exactly 3.51am on a chilly early morning on December 20th
00:34with his small team comprised of a support truck and car driven by his close friends.
00:38Dubbed 7 emirates in 7 days, Jalal will have to walk over 700km
00:42as calculated by the Guinness Book of World Records
00:44over unfinished roads, through the fog and blistering heat
00:47at a punishing pace which leaves little time for him to sleep or eat.
00:51It wasn't long into his trip before Jalal realized the monumental task ahead of him
00:55and began to have doubts as to whether the time frame set forth by Guinness was even possible.
01:00When you calculate something like this, you need to do a lot of math.
01:03They need to look at the terrain, they need to look at the road.
01:06They just come to me and say 7 days, 7 emirates. That's not fair man.
01:09Because Ajman is very small, Abu Dhabi is very big, Dubai is medium sized.
01:13You can't say 7 days, 7 emirates. So that hurt me a bit.
01:18Jalal is no stranger to this kind of adversity.
01:21In 2013 he cycled across the emirates and before that in 2012
01:25he completed the walk to Mecca from his home in Dubai.
01:28A few days into the trip and still walking the seemingly endless expanse
01:32of the Abu Dhabi Gwaifat road, disaster struck.
01:35His main support car, whose role was to bring fresh food supplies to Jalal,
01:39got into an accident, leaving Jalal and the remainder of his tiny crew
01:42to find a way to manage with the meager supplies they had on hand
01:45in their only remaining vehicle.
01:48At this point resolve set in and motivated Jalal to dig deep and continue his journey.
01:52Because I want to make it to Fujairah.
01:55I don't want to kill myself trying to reach somewhere and then I don't finish the journey.
02:00So you know, I'm just taking it one step at a time.
02:04We'll try it. I'm not saying we can't do it or no, it is impossible to do it.
02:11But Jalal, he's pushing on himself to reach it.
02:16As the Guinness record, they give us seven days.
02:19I see the seven days, it is not enough.
02:22After eight long days and nights being continually punished by the elements,
02:25Jalal finally crossed into Dubai, sporting a motorhome donated by a sympathetic follower.
02:30This unexpected generosity really provided Ben Thania with the means
02:33to keep his morale up throughout the remainder of his journey.
02:36They have to bring a wheelchair while I have a walking stick.
02:39You have to finish. You have to finish.
02:42And the five day trek across Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Um Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah went by without incident.
02:48On the 14th day of his journey, and in sight, Jalal continues his long march
02:52through the mountains of Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
02:55Spirits high but feeling oddly empty about the whole affair.
02:58I'm not feeling anything.
03:00Nothing?
03:02I want to finish because when you say something you have to finish it.
03:04I said I'd go from Ghoifat to the other point of the country.
03:07Once I do that I'll be satisfied.
03:09Right now I'm just like, you know, it's just flat.
03:12I just want to reach my final point.
03:14Cool.
03:15I want to try before sunset.
03:17But if that isn't the case, it isn't the case.
03:20Finally, well after sundown on the 14th day, Jalal Ben Thania reaches the shores of the Fujairah Corniche.
03:26He was sun scorched, his feet had long since turned from blisters to hard callus.
03:30He was drained mentally and physically and he didn't even come close to the record setting seven emirates in seven days.
03:36But a trek like this has to be about more than just winning a piece of paper.
03:39And for Jalal it most certainly was.
03:41His mission the whole time was to raise awareness for those with special needs.
03:45To remind the world that there are people who would kill for the ability to be sun scorched and drained mentally and physically by walking across the emirates.
03:52Who would trade almost anything in an attempt to fail at a Guinness World Record trek across the UAE.
03:57Special needs has always been something close to my heart.
04:00And I don't believe that you have to be a victim or you have to be afflicted with special needs to represent people with special needs.
04:05You know having a cause is something that helped me get to this point.
04:09If I didn't have a cause I wouldn't have reached this point.
04:11It would have been a shameful thing if I didn't have a cause.
04:14It was never about a record.
04:16Instead it was about the ability to overcome doubt and fear in the human journey of the soul.
04:20And to honour those who do this on a daily basis every minute of their lives.
04:25Logan Fish for Golf News.