I first learned about the Empty Quarter in my Mideast geography class in university. It seemed like such a stark area with sand dunes the size of ships and no water except for a few oases. It's the largest stretch of pure sand desert in the world.
When Meteb (my Mada'in Saleh guide) organized a tour to the Empty Quarter I knew I had to go. He had never done a tour there or even been there before so it was a new experience for all of us. On the way out I asked if he was nervous since we were all putting our lives in his hands and those of the Bedouin guides he had hired. He admitted he was a little nervous. We drove for a few hours southeast of Riyadh to the end of the road and the edge of the desert to make camp for the first night.
Riyadh is in the middle of the desert anyway but we said goodbye to the smallest of shrubs and dried twigs that were clinging to life. The next morning we started driving through the Empty Quarter and I could see where it got its name.
It was very disorienting to have no frame of reference except the sun to know which direction you are going. Luckily we had the Bedouin guides with us in the lead car and all the cars stayed within sight of each other. Meteb said that the Bedouins were way better than any GPS system.
Soon off in the distance we saw a little tin shed. We approached it, parked, and looked inside. It turned out to be a well and one of the few sources of water for miles (besides our large stock of bottled water we were carrying with us). I kept trying to ask how they are able to figure out where the water is when it's underground and the guide just said, "The Bedouin have their own ways of knowing how to find water." I thought it was pretty amazing.
We continued driving and every now and then would stop to play on the sand dunes. Even the drivers and guides had a good time. Fun for Saudi men always seems to involve dangerous car stunts.
We found a guy herding camels but they didn't feel like sticking around to be in all the tourists' pictures.
Soon it was time for lunch and off in the distance we could see an oasis. Each oasis is owned by a family and I liked to wonder how a particular family would come to 'own' an oasis. Did somebody stumble upon it way back when, or was there bloodshed involved?
This oasis had a big water storage container so they could water small crops and keep livestock. We all got to taste the water that came straight out of the ground. It tasted alright but I splashed most of it on myself instead of drinking it because it was so hot. Notice the little patch of grass that grows where the water drips out. I imagined how different the landscape would be with just a little bit of water.
The family that owned this oasis welcomed us there for lunch (prearranged by our guide, Meteb) but then they got into a little argument because the tour group had brought its own sheep to slaughter for lunch. The poor little lamb was laying down in the back of one of the trucks and had no idea why it had been brought on the journey. The guy who owned the oasis wanted to be able to show us true Arabian hospitality and slaughter an animal from his own herd to feed us. He had his best camel picked out for the occasion but luckily he was eventually convinced to let us cook the lamb we had brought with us. We relaxed under the trees while lunch was cooking as the men poured Arabic coffee and passed around sweet dates. Notice none of the women are wearing the black abaya. There are no religious police out in the desert and it was very relaxing.
Meanwhile I thought about the lamb and felt grateful for it. I've never been able to fully commit to vegetarianism, but in Islam food and drink are to be treated with respect. There are very strict rules about slaughtering animals and one is that the animal should be calm and not have any reason to suspect it is about to die. The person must come at it from behind and slit the throat with one quick movement. This is quite different from American slaughterhouse practices and although I didn't care to witness the actual slaughter, it was interesting to see the respect they gave to the animals that they consume. But before we could eat, the noon prayer call was heard and we waited while some of the men prayed nearby.
I didn't get any pictures of the lunch but it was the traditional dish of lamb kabsa and I was impressed by the men's cooking skills. They have to be good cooks out here because the women usually don't come out very often once the family has moved to the city. After lunch we went on our way but the oasis owner volunteered to come with us and make sure we didn't lose our way while we were in his territory. So we got to see some more sand.
At that point I just took my shoes off and didn't put them on again until the tour was over and we were back in the city. The sand was so soft and warm. It was still winter so it wasn't scorching hot yet. In the evening we found a place to camp next to some huge dunes. They were fun to climb and watch the sunset but with the wind blowing I didn't want my camera to get sand inside so I didn't get any pictures. Then we sat around the campfire and cooked shish kababs made from the leftover lamb from earlier that day.
The next morning when I reached up to scratch my head all I could feel was sand. The little grains of sand were so embedded in my scalp that they didn't come out until after a couple of long hot showers after I got back. For the time being we just looked like we all had really bad dandruff. We continued driving around finding bigger and better sand dunes and only got stuck in the sand a couple of times. Everyone knows you never go out in the desert unless you have a caravan of many other 4 wheel drive cars with you and this is why.
In the afternoon we drove back to the main highway and stopped at a village to have lunch. Our hosts were so happy to feed us a traditional meal from Saudi Arabia. They passed around the Arabic coffee and sweet dates and then served a large delicious plate of steaming hot . . . . lamb kabsa.
It was still delicious even though I was getting tired of lamb. It was a really nice trip and it's nice to get out and see other parts of the country besides just the city. I feel like I've left my footprint in the sands of Arabia . . . . quite literally.
No comments:
Post a Comment