Inland Sea or Bust

We finally made our trip to what is known as the "Inland Sea" on Friday. We had 7 vehicles in all for the trek out into the desert. Our main objective for the day was scuba diving, snorkeling and old fashioned adventure. No, no scuba or snorkeling for me...I'm not that adventurous. Unfortunately, no scuba for David either. His scuba gear hasn't made it here yet, and there was no gear in town to be rented due to the beautiful weather we're having. Our volunteer guide, a coworker of David's, is known to have quite of bit of desert experience and a little bit of a wild streak. I was really afraid of what might be in store, none the less, "Go west, young man" (actually North, but I have been known to be directionally challenged) was the motto for the day. One of the scarier parts was coming up to steep dunes and not knowing who or what was on the other side. I decided then that the "lead" car is not what you want to be. Ain't no tellin' what might be on the other side...suv, 4-wheeler, or errant beast. We really had the advantage being about 5 or 6 cars back, observing and learning from their mistakes...like watching them back down the hill after finding out that they didn't have quite enough speed to make it over the top. The tan Pathfinder in the pic on the left is our fearless leader. Fearless, schmearless...he can have it. There was no way on God's little tan earth over here that I was going over "Singing Dunes". I don't care what song it sang. The song was actually a big roar as the suv slid down and I do mean slide, brakes engaged the whole way down. The pic on the right is Kelly retrieving her cowboy hat that she lost while whooping and hollering on her ride down. After two of the vehicles braved their way down that big dune, we were back on track toward the sea. Next up, a flock of (wild?) camels were crossing our path. Hungry wild camels, that is. As the gang was " breaking bread" with the local beasts, I was snapping away hoping to get that one great pic. You be the judge. Can you say, "Perier"? I think that camel could. Anyway, the camels were real troopers letting everyone pet them, feed them, and gawk at them. Somehow I believe that this wasn't their first rodeo. Oh, and the pic below is Kristi's newest found friend. Cultural diversity is what Qatar is all about. You gotta love it. Okay, enough camel talk...forging ahead. Over the dunes and through the sand to our final destination only to be told to take our caravan elsewhere, "the Emir is having a private party, and this area of the beach is reserved". Well, if you're going to be upstaged, by all means make it by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.We were sort of wondering who the big a__ yacht in the sea belonged to (pardon my French). It did seem befitting of a sheikh, duh. So, off to another area of the beach that the scuba divers were not happy about. We took a few pics of Saudi Arabia across the sea for posterity and headed back out of the desert toward home to their usual dive area. They got their dive, we got our adventures and memories. The end.