Sand dunes and camels - back to the desert

A couple of the great things at Sealine beach area are the camel rides and the dune buggy rentals. So far, I've ridden neither, but I will in the future. The camels are very cool as seen in the picture above. You don't get to take one out for a ride by yourself, and given their generally nasty disposition, it's probably a good thing ... nasty buggers. Notice that they are all wearing colourful muzzles so they don't take a chunk out of the patrons. Now there's a new thing to knit in your spare time ... not much different than a tea cozy.

Here a mother and daughter show they are more adventuresome than I am. I believe they were just out in the sun a tad too long. You know, mad dogs and Englishmen ... in this case Englishmomandkid.

On my way back to Doha, I actually saw a herd? of seven wild camels by the roadside ... no saddles or muzzles either.

To the Desert in my Z4

On my first venture out of Doha and into the desert ... Qatar is entirely desert even though it doesn't always look like it in Doha where there are palm trees and grass ... throw enough money at it and you can even conquer Mother Nature. On the drive out there, I passed road signs that were like our deer crossing signs, only they are camel and ostrich crossing signs. In Doha, instead of pedestrian crossing signs, they depict a person wearing a thobe ... so we call them thobe crossings. Attempting to cross any road without these signs is taking your life in your hands, because pedestrians are really just potential road-kill here.

On a fine Saturday morning, myself, Satish (a co-worker from India) and his 13-year old son drove out to Sealine Beach. Once out of Doha, you appreciate exactly what a desert really is ... totally barren. It's not all sand like I thought, but more like hard-packed clay-like dirt the colour of sand. Once you get to Sealine, however, you see massive sand dunes that the locals love to challenge with their Land Cruisers (the most popular vehicle by far in Qatar). Just to show you that my comments about what the Qataris drive like in my previous post are carried over to desert driving, catch this video of them in the sand dunes ... insane! And if that doesn't convince you check this one out ... That'll leave a mark!

This is a view of the Sealine beach area from atop a large sand dune ... damn near killed me climbing it. As you can tell it was near the end of a kind of a hazy and overcast day.

Oddly enough, Satish's son doesn't swim (neither does Satish) and they come from Kerala, India, which is by the ocean. Eventually, though he went in the water after climbing the sand dunes ... after all it was 40 degrees C, and I think the sand was more like 140 degrees.

Roundabout problem solved - my new wheels

One of the very worst things about Doha is driving in Doha. I've found the people here to be very refined, dignified and respectful ... at least until they get behind the wheel. They do have well-defined driving laws here such as, no cell phone use when driving, only park in designated areas, speed cameras everywhere, and well marked lanes on the roads. The only problem is that nobody either knows of the laws or doesn't give a rat's ass ... probably the latter.

The first month I was here, Rhonda drove me to work and to shop, etc., which was great. But I knew I needed to get my own vehicle and learn to drive here. After seeing what driving was like as a passenger and driving Rhonda's car a few times, I realized I had a choice ... get a tank or a very fast car to survive. I chose the latter because I couldn't find a tank complete with ammunition for the canon.

 My rule-of-thumb for driving here is as follows: If another vehicle looks like he might be able to cut into your lane, he definitely will, and if it looks like there's no way he could squeeze in, he definitely will. The only way to drive here is what I would call the defensive-aggressive style of driving. That means don't trust any other driver not to do something stupid (because they will), and if you are going to go ... GO!

 The majority of roads are multi-lane divided highways with the average city speed limit of between 80 - 100 km/hr, and for the most part, they have roundabouts instead of intersections. The rule of roundabouts is that the inside lane has the right of way ... only no one knows that here. It wouldn't be so bad if the drivers here knew what that thing is sticking out of the left side of the steering column (the turn signal), but they apparently do not as no one uses them except some Canadian drivers. My new car even has fairly large side flashers so other drivers can see your signal even if they are beside you ... not that it matters to them.

I love my new car ... a BMW Z4 ... the ultimate roundabout tool. Not many other vehicles can do a roundabout like I can ... except for the Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Maseratis, Porsches, etc., of which there are more than a few. I now look forward to my trips to and from work ... I refer to them as rally races, because that's pretty much what they are.

This is the view of my car that I like to give other drivers as often as possible because, only then do I feel they won't hit me ... at least until the next roundabout.

The term 'woman driver' here takes on a whole new meaning. One really disconcerting thing is that they wear black head coverings ... some completely covering their face. Seeing them anywhere near me makes me nervous especially when they are using their cell phone ... which is all the time.