The Incense Route Expedition 2025 explores the legacy of storytelling that lies at the intersection of ancient trade routes, and at the heart of all future foundations based upon sustainability and creative interaction. As expedition artist, Arabella joins explorers Rosie Stancer & Pom Oliver in the Incense Route Expedition, which will be the third in a trilogy of female-led desert expeditions that began in the Aral Sea (2022) and continued across the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, (2023). Showcasing female-led innovation in culture and conservation, these expeditions explore how heritage and creativity might look back to the lessons of the past, so as to fuel a sustainable future of tomorrow.

You can follow our journey here.

Sketching portraits is the most amazing way to connect and learn one another, especially with the barriers of language since my Arabic is almost non existent and the sitter’s English often very limited

We have been fortunate enough to meet the beautiful Flower Men who live in in the Asir region, in the foothills of the Habala Mountains that straddle Saudi Arabia's southern border with Yemen.

Dr Yusar Asiri (pictured below) gave the flowers to us as a gift from his garden in the Asiri Mountains - Al Soudah.