Nature Detox

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. ~John Muir, 1913

A resurrected John Muir would take issue with the Gulf States. While we’ve been amply fed for the past four weeks, helpings of “nature” are in incredibly short supply during the hot summer months. This past week Brian (one of our group members) kindly arranged two trips outside of Doha, giving us a rare opportunity to see and feel the sandy splendor of the Qatar landscape.

Last night we traveled via bus southward toward the inland sea, a UNESCO world heritage site that, in my humble opinion, is in dire need of more serious environmental protection measures, though I won’t sully this post with annoying observations. I was hungry to breathe in fresh air and feel the grainy sands whirling about the dunes. The Nikon jammed again (evil dust ingress) but the sand was so coarse we were rewarded with free body and eyeball exfoliations! More dune bashing was required to reach the water, but this attempt was not nearly as nauseating as the UAE go-around. We traversed flat stretches of salty hardpan, summitted organic dunes in the process of personal reinvention, and caught glimpses of Saudi Arabian structures within paddling distance of our 4WD. The desert is a melancholy and fragile place but so striking in its elegance, the little black dress of world biomes.

Our northern journey brought us to the rock carvings of Al-Jassasiya, one of only a handful of Qatar’s formally recognized and researched archaeological sites, but a mysterious one at that, and just off the road. Groups of stars, fat-finned fish, wooden boats, and scorpion carvings were studied here by a Danish team in the 60s-70s, but there’s very little evidence to suggest conclusive dates. What can be said for certain is that it’s an ideal spot to beg a friend to snap some romantic, artificially constructed, English Patient style photographs. I ask, is there anything more seductive than a warm desert wind at sunset?

PS - Apologies for the self-indulgent and narcissistic image, but Mom was begging for some people shots. KB photos courtesy of colleagues and satellite image lifted from my personal arsenal.