Digging in the Desert

Whether it be good or bad, doing pretty much anything in this country is somewhat of an adventure.  Going to the doctor, grocery shopping, or having dinner can turn into something far more than you bargained for.  And that's just every day life!  We decided to wait to do anything that normal people consider to be an adventure for when Harry's parents came.  They were planning to stay for two weeks and I knew we would need a few fun activities to get us all out of the house.  A few people from our compound posted pictures on Facebook of them digging for sand roses out in the desert.  I thought that would be the perfect thing for us to do!  One of the families had been twice and they made a pretty accurate map of how to get there.  We were advised on all the equipment we needed to bring with us and to go with a group for in case one of the cars got stuck in the sand.  Luckily the same driver had taken them on both of their trips and he was available to take us!

We invited some our friends to come along so we all met up and had lunch at the compound restaurant before heading out to our desert adventure.  I don't know why, but I imagined that we would pull over on the side of the road and start digging.  That wasn't the case!  We were literally in the middle of the desert...with the Bedouins and roaming camels.  I've seen some of
the tents that these people live in from the highway, but seeing them up close is crazy!  I have NO idea how they do it in the summer when temperatures are well over 100 degrees! 

We finally made it to the spot where we knew we would be able to find the roses.  They form in arid sandy conditions, specifically at the evaporation of a shallow salt basin.  So in order to find them, you have to dig until you hit water which is about 3 feet.  Connor had a great time!  He kept saying that he was looking for buried treasure.  It was soooo windy, but we all had a blast!  

Camels roaming around in the distance.

Our drivers.

Our gang! (minus Harry's dad who took the picture and his mom and Jameson who were in the car)

Our first adventure as a family of four!  It was extremely windy so I kept Jameson covered up.

The girls :)

Because it was so windy, the sand started to cover the roads (and I use the word "roads" loosely).  We had to go really fast to make it through where the sand had gotten deep.  Connor thought it was so much fun...me, not so much!  I definitely won't be riding any dune buggies!   We didn't always make it through though!  We were in three cars all together...the first car made it through okay, the second car got stuck which made the third car have to stop and of course get stuck.  This happened more than once!  Thank goodness we were in a group!  It made for an entertaining ending to our outing!

Some of the roses look better than others, but they are all pretty fascinating!