A wild sandstorm, we stay another day

During the night and all day long a wild sandstorm has been whipping through the oasis reducing visibility and depositing dust in every corner of our van. So we made a household day, filling diesel, water, cleaning and shopping.

In the late afternoon the wind had subsided and we decided to walk the "heritage trail" through the oasis.
In their huge effort to create a nation with an identity and to start a tourist industry, the Saudis have litterally rebuilt the oasis with its mud brick huts amidst these incredible rocky cliffs, have planted vegetable gardens and palm trees, and have created city spaces that are so aesthetic and ingeneous that they must have had the best designers in the world working on this project (as is the case in Riad). While this all carries the taste of Disney land (a little), these are also real living spaces for local population, who go for walks, swing on the swings and have a picnic evening. This gives it a real legitamacy.
We enjoyed it thoroughly .Read more