Four cats, six Saluki dogs, 11 chickens, 3 turkeys, 3 geese, 10 guinea fowls, 5 ducks, 5 camels, 10 tortoises, 7 hedgehogs… That’s a quick headcount of Lilianne Donders’ household. Her animal world!
Right in the heart of the bustling busy Seeb road is her little haven – a world away from the whizzing traffic and the daily rush. Open the gate to her abode and six elegant Salukis come rushing, feigning anger with loud barks. “They are docile”, points out Lilianne, as she leads us to patio seats facing the camel pen, with her favourite Zubeida and the gang giving us languorous looks.
We were all set to switch off from the mundane and soak in the positive radiance around us.
Positivity is what Lilianne symbolises. Whether it is in her triumph over her breast cancer or her innate ability to do Reiki healing, even on animals, the camel whisperer, who undertook a Caravan of Hope days after her radiation and chemotherapy sessions in the early 2000s, has woven a cocoon of positivity around her. A registered nurse by profession, Lilianne has a strong Reiki background, having relied on it to induce healing and create positivity.
Looking back on those early days, she recalls that her initiation into nursing happened because her parents (her father is a doctor) believed it was a more reliable profession than being an artist. But, alongside nursing, she followed her heart and realised her dream of studying art and fashion designing. She was still studying when she got married and eventually got pregnant with her first son. She was preparing for her fashion exam during the day, working as nurse during the night and managing it all with her positive mien.
It was her husband’s transfer to Oman, 38 years ago, that crystallised her destiny. Although the years in between have taken the family to Syria, Iran, the UAE and to some European countries, it is Oman that she now calls home. In the weeks following her arrival here, the local Bedouins adopted her into their tribe – Al Majali Al Janaibah – and made her a part of their lives. Soon she started travelling throughout the country, photographing her forays. These trips brought her into close contact with local handicrafts and she found a home for them by opening an art gallery, the first of its kind in Oman, called Gallery Numero Wahad. The name was a takeoff from ‘Laila Numero Wahad’, the pet name was given to her by Bedouins, from whom she also learnt Arabic.
As her bond with the Bedouins grew, they started offering her goats, which she had to decline as she doesn’t eat meat. But when they offered her camels…something clicked in her. Although she had to refuse, as it wasn’t feasible to bring them home with her, she made arrangements to visit the camels regularly.
But she had to put a brake on that, as her husband’s transfers took them away from Oman. Not for long… So, when she realised they were headed back to this region, she told her husband – “That’s it; I am going to buy camels!” She’d saved for it and, with the help of a friend in Syria, bought Saudi camels – a mother (Zubaida) and her daughter (Sheba). Zubaida, her first camel, is still with her, but they lost her daughter to a stomach infection.
“It was horrible,” she recalls. “She was my baby. She was the most intelligent camel I had ever met in my life. Camels have their own frame of mind, they never follow tracks…and so do I. I follow my own intuition and will.”
And that is exactly what she did when she took on the arduous trek along the mountains with her camels. She walked with the camels from Damascus to Tehran just weeks after her treatment for breast cancer was finished and a few years later continued all the way to Oman. She was diagnosed with breast cancer as she was finalising her plans for the first trip in 1999. But immediately after the treatment, she informed her oncologist about her plans and went ahead, despite the negative feedback from people around her.
Her radiating positivity helped push her on; it was the very same positivity that helped her inject magic into the hospital in the initial days of her treatment. Feeling the weighty dreariness emanating from the large framed images of medical instruments on the walls of the hospital corridor, she affixed printed images of her camels on them and wasn’t surprised when it changed the very atmosphere of the cancer ward in the hospital.
In April 2000 she initiated the much awaited walk with her camels to Tehran, covering about 1800kms. She followed that with a second trip in 2004, walking from Tehran to Muscat and back to Dubai, covering a total of 8000 kms in both the trips. Her husband and two sons joined in whenever they had time; her husband compiled her trip in a daily blog for her sponsors, while her sons helped track the route.
She walked from Tehran to Yazd where they took a truck up to Bandar Abbas; from there they travelled to Emirates on a barge, unloaded the camels, dogs and the truck and began the next phase of the walk from Ras Al Khaimah to Dubai and Al Ain. That walk brought them into Oman and she remembers camping opposite the road where she now resides. It was a vacant lot then. People would bring food in the evenings, strengthening her resolve to stay connected with Oman. Her plan now is to do another trip, with camels, of course, through the Empty Quarter to Salalah, and back along the coast.
In the meanwhile, she continues to talk to animals and see things that others cannot instinctively see in them. Her love, she says, is unconditional!
The home I grew up in… Is in Holland. When I was a child I wanted to… Be an explorer. The moment that changed me forever… When I arrived in Oman in 1980. My greatest inspiration… Wilfred Thesiger. My hero… My husband. If I could change one thing about myself… I would have finished art school. I dream of… The desert – my favourite place It’s not fashionable but I like… Walking with camels. My greatest regret… That I didn’t travel more extensively. You may not know it but I’m very good at… Communicating with animals. If I have time to myself… I would paint. My house is… The place where I feel truly comfortable – outside of the desert, that is. My favourite haunt/holiday destination… Oman and the Middle East. My favourite weekend spot in Oman… Jabal Akhdar and Salalah. I will not leave my house without… An abaya. On top of my wish/bucket list is… Do another trip with camels. My success mantra is… To stay positive and fight whatever that comes in the way. In 10 years’ time, I hope to be… Still here. Things I like about Oman… The warmth of its people, their hospitality and the way His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has held the country together, provided educational opportunities for women and made the country a role model for the Middle East.