It promises to be an adrenaline-fuelled, terror-soaked show like no other.
Quest Arabiya's new flagship travel programme, Nabd Al Moghamara (Pulse of Adventure), features the hosts – Lebanese rock climber Ghida Arnaout and Saudi skydiving fanatic Hussein Gazzazz – doing wild and wonderful things all over the Middle East and North Africa.
“We travelled around the Mena region,” says Arnaout, who when she’s not halfway up a mountain, runs the music and outdoors blog MonkyseeMonkydo, and works as a social-media manager at Saatchi&Saatchi. “We visited beautiful places and experienced activities you can do in each of those regions – kitesurfing in Morocco, sky-diving in Dubai and deepwater soloing in Oman.”
Although Arnaout is a seasoned sportswoman, the show wasn’t without its moments of fear.
“Skydiving was definitely one of the most scary things,” she says. “Halfway through the skydiving lessons I had a moment where I was stuck in a panic hole that I couldn’t get out from. You think that after you jump a couple of times it becomes easier but it really doesn’t. Because not only are you standing on the door of the plane and taking the decision to jump, but you also have to prove to your instructors that you can apply what you learnt on the ground up in the air to pass the jump.”
Even in the more familiar territory of climbing, Arnaout admits that the series presented plenty of challenges.
“Climbing the highest mountain in North Africa [Toubkal in Morocco] was not easy at all,” she says. “We had to climb 1,000 metres in six hours using crampons. It was steep and I was terrified of getting altitude sickness. Thankfully, I didn’t. Each experience starts with an out-of-breath moment because at the end of the day, you are putting yourself in places you’re not used to. But once you do it, the feeling you have is indescribable.”
Fortunately for audiences, Arnaout isn’t one to give up in the face of adversity, as she proved following a serious injury in 2013.
“I have always been a big fan of adrenalin-charged adventures, but after a hip injury in 2013 that left me immobile for three months, my love for extreme sports and the outdoors multiplied,” she says. “Adventure and extreme sports are the two things that make me feel alive. I feel stronger when I put myself in challenging and sometimes dangerous situations and the more I do it the more I want to do it. It’s like an addiction.”
Arnaout also hopes the show will inspire viewers to get fit.
“Being given the opportunity to host such a show will not only satisfy my adventure needs but it will also help me inspire people around me to get off the couch and do the same,” she says.
The adventure-sports market is well covered in the region, with channels such as Fuel and Discovery already offering plenty of content for adrenalin junkies, but Arnaout is confident that one thing will help her new show stand out and speak to audiences in the 22 countries where Quest Arabiya is available. “It is the first Arabic-language adventure and extreme-sports show that shows residents of the Arab world that they don’t need to travel very far to find such activities, beautiful nature and outdoor adventures,” she says.
Carl von Doussa, Quest Arabiya’s general manager, agrees.
“We are looking forward to highlighting the incredible, natural landscapes throughout the Middle East and North Africa and showcasing the region’s diversity and talent. This regional content will sit perfectly alongside the world-class programmes we access through our partner Discovery Communications, which are fully dubbed in Arabic and with graphics that make the content relevant and relatable to the Mena audience.”
• Nabd Al Moghamara screens on Sunday nights on Quest Arabiya at 10.30pm. Repeats are broadcast throughout the week
cnewbould@thenational.ae
