Sunday, February 14, 2010

Sand dune adventure

Rachel said, "This was the best day ever!" When I reminded her of our wedding day, she stepped back a little bit from this comment. But only a little.


We set out in the late afternoon (on Friday) for the nearby sand dunes, in hopes of spending some time in the sand and seeing the sunset. We parked on the edge of the dune and brought our gear up to a sandy plateau.



The dunes are in a line, and are 100+ meters tall, at their peak. It was an very fine-grained, orangey-yellow colored sand, that felt great between your toes. The sun was just dipping over the horizon as we set out the picnic blanket, dates, and tea.


The sun did not disappoint, thanks to some wispy clouds (the first we have seen in a week!).


I took some video of some guys riding around on ATVs, when I saw a dune buggy approaching from above. The driver, Hussein, braked next to our blanket, got out, and said, "you want a go?"

We assumed he would drive. But no, he wanted us to have the full experience. Unfortunately, is was a manual transmission so we could not do it...

But we did get to ride!





This was a great example of Arab hospitality at its finest. The dune buggy did get stuck once, sadly, requiring some digging to free it up. I was covered in sand. But it was fun!

Afterwards, we walked up to the top of the dune to see the city lights and look at the stars.



-alan

1 comment:

Unknown said...

FUN!!!!
Couldn't get the video to work, but maybe try again later.