I was going through some old pictures from the past few years in Saudi and I ran across some from a road trip to UAE.
The drive from Riyadh to UAE used to go through Dammam (straight East to Dammam and then shoot South to get to the UAE border). But recently, they built a nice two lane road straight from Riyadh to the border. The only problem with the road is the intense shifting sands typical of the desert, but problematic when you're driving through it.
So I wasn't surprised when I saw the first major sand dune in the middle of the road:
Note the dot in the middle of the picture. That's an oncoming truck. When confronted with such a sand shift, we'd simply have to wait for any oncoming traffic and then drive around the pile of sand.
But what was interesting was the various tactics used to battle the extreme desert winds. Here is a picture of a front-loader being used to push the sand off the roadway. It really amused us as we were used to seeing such equipment employed for clearing out snow back in the US:
(Speaking of which, the parallel between sand and snow is very striking. For example, a snow blizzard and a sand storm are equally blinding. Also, the phenomenon of the shifting sands taking over the desert highways is similar to what happens in upstate NY (and other northern regions) where a strong wind following a heavy snowfall results in 'snow dunes' appearing on recently-cleared roads.)
Another fascinating approach to controlling the rolling sands was to pour tar onto the dunes, thereby solidifying them:
And of course, no road trip in KSA would be complete without the ever-present camel. Thankfully the major cross-country highways (Riyadh-Jeddah, Riyadh-Dammam) are fenced off and the once-serious concern of smacking into a camel has been eliminated. But since this road to the UAE border is fairly new and seldom used, the fences haven't been placed, thereby allowing us the pleasure of meeting Mr. Camel up-close:
7 comments:
Assalaamu alaikum,
Nice post Naeem! We made our last trip to UAE by road and drove right up as far as the Musandam Peninsula... seems that the danger there is not smacking into a camel but rather a goat or ox! Umm Ibrahim
this reminds me of our recent trip to yanbu, about 2 hours from madinah. we stopped at the area of badr as the sand is distinctively different(subhanAllah) very light in color, clean and smooth..(appropriate for tayammum i mean) the kids were running up and down..and we got stuck in the sand on the side of the road for about an hour. now we understand why many here have 4 wheel drives! alhamdulilah, a kind brother stopped to help my husband and after several attempts we were free! may Allah reward him..and it even though it was pretty hot out around noonish..it was a good way to teach the kids of doing something for no other reason than to please Allah..as many before him just passed by us..
how far is UAE from Riyadh anyway?
Salaam, Naeem
Thanks for posting these pics. Kind of neat. :-)
AA-
@Umm Ibrahim, you guys drove all the way to Musandam? That's very impressive. How far is that from Dubai? Was it worth the extra drive? Haven't heard too much about that part...would it be worth it to visit if we ever go to UAE again?
@Suhaa, yeah I've heard of Yanbu and its beautiful beaches. One day we would like to visit that area as well, IA-
Riyadh to Abu Dhabi is about the same as Riyadh to Madina - 9 hours or so...
@Amy, no prob sis...
Assalaamu alaikum,
I thought UAE was a bit further than Makkah and Madinah... maybe it's the messing about at border control that deceived me... or maybe I am thinking of the total time to get anywhere worthwhile rather than just the border. ;)
We stayed in Sharjah last time we went and used that as our base so the extra travel up to the peninsula wasn't much. There was nice scenery so we enjoyed the drive plus we have friends in Ra's al-Khaimah we wanted to see since it was Eid.
The trouble with the peninsula is that it belongs to Oman so you have go through all the border control palaver which is probably 2 hours either way; not worth it just for a day trip, you'd need all your camping gear with you to make it worthwhile! After the kids had finished feeding the goats at the border we turned around and went and found a deserted beach in RAK instead. :) Umm Ibrahim
AA- Umm Ibrahim,
Thanks for the info...yeah that border stuff really does dampen a nice road trip - that's why I try to stay within Kingdom for most road trips (Mecca, Madina, Khobar)...
But sometimes you just need a change of scenery...like seeing goats instead of camels. :-)
slm
these pix r soo "Saudi Arabia" I mean they really remind u of all those good times driving seemingly endless bit of a black n white strip.
n these animals r the highlights some of the time :D
thnx for posting
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