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So, after hopping into the car in the Red Desert we headed up yet another lonely road and drove out to an even more deserted area where we figured we could go for a nice little walk and search for a few fossils and perhaps see a couple camels. The drive up to the White Desert didn't take very long since it was located along one of the neighboring escarpments to the Red Desert. As we noticed the rolling orange sand dunes disappearing behind us, vaulted columns of stone rose sharply before us. We ascended the long curves of a two lane road leading toward distant mesas and eventually came upon a little dirt road to our left which took us to the top of one of these geological formations. |
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ABOVE: Objects in mirror are larger than they may appear.
After arriving atop one of these mesas, which are actually so large they should be referred to as mega-monoliths, we found ourselves on a nicely groomed gravel road weaving its way through the bottom of a small rocky valley, as seen LEFT. To all our excitement we chanced upon three camels trotting up the road toward us with one of them quite a distance ahead of the other two. Trailing far behind them was the camels' master. As we approached the camels John slowed the vehicle to a near stop and we pulled up beside them. |
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The first camel walked toward the car as if it was just going to pass us by, until we rolled down our window, pulled out all our cameras and started hollering at it to come up to the car. Apparently this was an Arabic-only speaking camel as it didn't do exactly as we commanded, but the beast was kind enough to stop and gnarl at us for a minute, giving us the opportunity to photograph it. I chuckled as I watched the animal growl at us because it seemed so stereotypically camel to do so. These animals are honestly the world's most grumpy creatures. But, I suppose if I had to walk through the desert all day long as some human's slave with people photographing me like a freak, I'd probably be pretty bitter too! In any case, I think the picture to the RIGHT is cool, not only because of the camel, but also because the hump on his back matches the hump in the rock ledge behind him. Coincidence? :-) |
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ABOVE: a close up shot of Mr. GrumpyPants' legs. Isn't it wild how they're virtually all bone and joints?! I especially like the giant split-toe foot-pads. (There must be a Greek or Latin term for this sort of thing, no?) Also in this picture you can see the tough pads on the camel's knee joints as well as at the hip and on the chest plate.
And speaking of evolution. . . here I am looking for a little bit of it lying around in the form of fossils scattered all over the surrounding landscape. (Well, actually I'm staring up at my camera in this particular shot, but you get the idea!) At one point in the Arabian Peninsula's ancient history it is was a sedimentary seafloor into which all sorts of sea creatures sank, got covered with mud, and then over time were compacted and changed into mineralized remnants of their former selves. The entire area was just brimming with the little souvenirs and all you had to do to find one was brush away a little of the dirt on some of the stony outcroppings or just roll over one of the larger rocks.
LEFT: fossilized dinosaur snout, or ancient Martian meteorite? You decide! ABOVE: here are two little shots taken by your favorite little amateur paleontologist! When I found the little treasure on the left I imagined that it was the jaw of a long-since-perished dinosaur with its teeth and eye socket jetting out, but upon turning the rock upside down (yes, turn your heads upside down!) I noticed that it much more closely resembled one of those gently waving, colorful underwater sea plants than it did the horrific teeth of a dinosaur. Although, I imagine I'm wrong on both accounts! Any suggestions anyone? On the RIGHT you can see a nice little fossilized shell resting quaintly betwixt a couple neighboring rocks, just sitting there slowly being eroded away by the occasional rain and dust storm eon after eon.
And one little relic which I imagine hasn't been resting quaintly in the Arabian desert eon after eon was the rusted and dusted blue Pepsi can above. As I was meandering around one of the flatter areas beside the road my eye was caught by a blue smudge in a shrub down by my foot and I thought, "Now that's queer. . . a blue shrub in the middle of the desert. . ." but upon further investigation it turned out to be none other than a memoir from afar - a little piece of my own American culture way out here in the middle of Arabia. If it hadn't been trash, I would have felt all warm and fuzzy inside! :-}
The ABOVE image is a wee bit hard to make out since there isn't a whole lot of color variation therein, but it's a picture of some dried out little shrub poking out from underneath a sunscathed rock. This was the only tree in the middle of this field and as I kneeled down and looked at it, frozen in a dehydrated state of suspended animation, I wondered what life as a shrub in the middle of the Arabian desert must be like: the sun rises. . . you get baked for a while. . . a camel stomps by. . . a snake slithers past. . . the sun sets. . . the stars burn. . . a barrage of nocturnal critters scurry around. . . then the sun rises. . . you get baked once again and the whole cycle begins anew.
ABOVE: late afternoon eventually overtook our desert valley hideaway and as the sun continued on its journey westward, a long dark shadow cast from a neighboring mountain top crept steadily eastward. I escorted this usher of nightfall as it slowly swallowed everything in reach, watching as it devoured every rock and every fossil in its path. I jumped in and out of the hungry shadow and then stopped to photograph the ingestion of the lonesome shrub ABOVE. I thought it was kind of cool because the shrub appears to be reaching out toward the approaching predator, as if to say with an exhausted breath, "Take me. . ."
ABOVE: The shadow continued its march across the valley so after a thorough search for fossils we all dusted off our shoes, hopped in the car, and headed out on our return home. We wound our way through the dry river valley down into the neighboring desert flatlands and continued on toward the Mecca Highway where we hooked a right and drove eastward back up the the escarpment into Riyadh.
ABOVE: aren't these Saudis just the nicest people - they even put their street signs out in the middle of the desert in English for all of us foreigners! Alas, 25% of the Saudi population, and about 45% of the driving population (remember, women can't drive) are foreigners, so the entire country would be lost if it weren't for these friendly little translations. As seen above, this is a sign for Riyadh to the east and Zamamat to the north. If you read the cursive script from right to left, you can see "a", "l+r" then "y+a" then "d", which is Riyadh, pronounced "ar-Riyadh" meaning "The Little Gardens", and the next word is "a", "l+z" "m+a" "m+a" then "t", pronounced "az-Zamamat" which means, "The Reins". In any case, this was the sign which redirected us back toward civilization and within 40 minutes we were all sitting in a nice little Thai restaurant for dinner in western Riyadh talking about our jaunt into the Saudi Outback as we gobbled down mounds of rice and tons of tasty Southeast Asian cuisine!
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