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March 02, 2005
In the desert with the horse with no name??
The beginning of the Southern Dune Sea is South of Umm Saaid (or Messaaed as pronounced by the Qataris). This picture was taken just outside a place called Sealine - a resort on the seaside outside Doha (bathing is frowned on along the Corniche!).
Dune bashing with Quad Bikes seems to be the national sport of the local youff!
The dune sea is blinding white sand, very fine and very soft. This gives rise to a peculiar condition in the deserts here where there is a hard but very thin crust over a deep pocket of this fine sand. Vehicles breaking through this crust sink very rapindly into the sand. The quad bikes, being much lighter, don't have quite the same problem, but watching some of the riders and their complete disregard for safety one wonders about the "inch Allah!" culture. Poor Allah gets the blame for one heck of a lot of pure stupidity!
Having watched a squadron of these bikers whizz through a carpark between pedestrians and cars, across a busy road, and then up and over a dune, then reappear across the face of another set, where one of them managed to loop the bike down the dune, fortunately without apparent injury - considering that none of them wear sensible things like helmets or anything other than their head dress or the long white robe, it's a miracle they survive their youff!
Environmental considerations? Why? It's the desert!
Posted by The Gray Monk at March 2, 2005 10:32 AM
Comments
Are there any poisonous snakes out there to contend with?
Posted by: Pimme at March 2, 2005 08:55 PM