It's wintertime so now that the weather is pleasant many Qataris have set up camps in the southern desert. A friend invited me to visit his camp at the sand dunes near Sealine Resort so I went down on Friday to meet him.
I don't have a 4x4 so I had to park at Sealine then my friend picked me up in his Land Cruiser. The area just outside of Sealine was packed with cars. Things were a bit chaotic as cars were driving every which way along with dune buggies. Some guy was even zooming around on two wheels in a buggy.
So we got out to the camp, it was a nice place with a main tent, sleeping quarters, a kitchen trailer, a bathroom trailer, an outside majlis, generators and so forth.
Here’s the inside of the main tent. Nice, huh? This certainly isn't camping like you would do in North America with a simple tent. There were two television sets (one was for the gaming system) complete with satellite channels, and of course the tent had air conditioners but the weather was pleasant enough that they weren’t turned on. The area where I was standing was where we had lunch, a tray of chicken and rice which we ate in traditional style with our right hand.
After that we went out for a spin in my friend’s Polaris dune buggy. I had never been in one before but it had a 5-point star seat-belt to keep you securely inside, and a mask was provided to protect against sand. The thing had a powerful engine and we were able to go up very steep dunes without much effort.
After sunset I had to head back to Doha so I got dropped off back of my car and headed home. I can see why during the camping season Qataris can spend all weekend out at their camps, it’s comfortable living.
No comments:
Post a Comment