trip to the desert

Last Sunday was a holiday, so Carolyn and I and four friends hired Safari Tours to take us to the desert to do some 'duneing'. After a short drive we left the pavement behind. There were two vehicles (not a good thing to head out alone!) and the first stop was to lower the tire pressure to 15psi. The tires themselves are larger than normal and balloon shaped, with not cross-tread at all, just grooves going around the tires. After that we headed out into the desert. Shortly, our driver indicated he was going to climb a huge dune, and then turn and come down. Some of the group decided not to go along, and got out. One of the pics is of our vehicle coming back down the dune (They look like giant snow drifts). Then we continued on, and got used to climbing and sliding down the sides of the dunes. A little scary, but fun. (Some of the young bucks at the college have actually rolled their vehicles with great damage to their vehicles and themselves). While driving over the trackless desert we saw a man on a distant hill waving to us. When we went to investigate we found two men, a woman, and a small baby, with their SUV bruied to the axels in the sand. They were in a depression in the sand and had been there for some time before we came along. We were able to pull them out, but thought how silly they were to be out there without a second vehicle. After cruising awhile longer, we came to the 'inland sea', a rather large inter-tidal lake. On the other side was Saudi Arabia. In fact there is still a dispute regarding whoes territory this is. After a stop to cavort on the beautiful beach (it stretches for miles) we headed to a camp on the gulf where we were fed a delicious traditional meal in a bedouin tent. This has definitely been one of the highlights of my time here.