Well believe it or not we are now on vacation for a week! Geez, those teachers eh! We used our first day to explore southern Qatar and the inland sea, which looks more like a big salty lake.
We left Doha at 2pm and headed south (click for map), 20 SUVs in a convoy.
Once we arrived at the end of the road we had to deflate our tires to 18 psi inorder to drive in the sand. The flat tires get better traction and tend not to sink in the soft sand.
"I think it's flat enough!
Our first camel sighting! In Umm Said
And there off! All tires properly flattened, we leave the highway.
There are no landmarks on this road, thank Allah for GPS.
You know how they say " half the fun is getting there! Well this time it was true! The off road was a combination of hard pack, highway texture road mixed with "bone jarring" broken pavement, licks of sanspits and then the occasional sand dune to climb. The sand dune ascents were a hoot, you 50m between one vehicle and the next, just in case the guy ahead gets stuck, which many did!
The beauty of where we ended up is not really captured in these pictures unfortunately. The vistas were absolutely panoramic, with terrain that I had never seen before, first hand.
We settled in and swam, with lots of horseshoe crabs crawling over toes and thousands of other creatures that we wouldn't notice until later. We started our BBQ, I bought a little hibachi style grill and fired up some briquettes ( first time in 30 years). While the coals were getting ready we failed to notice the rising tide. By the time the hot dogs were on the grill the first streamers of sea water began to infiltrate our tail gate picnic. We ended up marching the BBQ to higher ground and relocating the jeep. Within ten minutes we had to move again. It didn't help that the sun had set, which made it hard to judge where the water was.... it was fun.
Rolling down the dunes..Once the sun had truly set we were treated to an incredible star display. The Milky way was beautiful as were the shooting stars we saw. It was another magical evening!
That is Saudi across the water.
This is obviously not my photo, but after sunset if you walked through the water it would light up with what looked like little fire flies. If you swished the water with your hands hundreds of little flecks of light would dance around your hands... It was incredibly cool. They are little one celled creatures called dinoflagellates.
The drive home was challenging. There was no moon, no lights of any kind. You just crossed your fingers that the guy leading the convoy knew where he was going. Going over and around dunes in the dark was ..... a thrill. It really felt good to get home, next time we camp!
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