A long time ago Arita quit her job as environmentalist, bought camels in Egypt and never looked back. She has been exploring the deserts of Egypt and the Sudan for 15 years with her small caravan of camels. Often completely alone, she utilises basic navigatios tools: a simple compass and an old map. At other times she has had to rely on armed escorts, or joined Sudanese nomads and trade caravans.

Arita Baaijens is the first woman to have travelled the Darb el Arbain twice and the first woman to have crossed the Western Desert of Egypt alone and on camel. She visited and photographed the last surviving female caravaners in Mauritania.

• Change drives innovation – How to transform resistance into a positive and powerful force
• Leadership – a woman in a man’s world
• Diversity – cultural perspectives – worldviews – science and the wisdom of traditional knowledge

I recommend every organisation, struggling with innovation and change, to invite Arita Baaijens for a powerful brainstorm session. She helps transform old mental models. Comforting and breath taking. Beautiful images.

Maaike Thiecke, SPINN, Bureau for Organisational Change