Father & Son Desert Campout

It was late afternoon last Wed. when my crew headed out to meet up with the Daharan Fathers & Sons. By the time everyone arrived it was already getting dark. After a wrong turn some back tracking the caravan arrived at their destination, which was determined by the fact that most of the cars got stuck.

Dinner was cooked in the pitch black, tents were set up in the dark as well. The boys were so excited to find out they got to stay up until 11pm.

With morning light camp was better established and you can see a large sand dune rising up behind it.

Also you can see that all the cars are spread out where they remained stuck until it was time to dig them out to go.

The morning also brought lessons in entomology playing with an unusual looking preying-mantis.

It had beige stripes to help it blend in with it's surrounding.

They also had a lesson in arachnology looking at camel spiders.

The sand dune was adjacent to a body of fresh water. Some said it is the only natural fresh water lake in the region others said it is just a reservoir from the waste station near by.

The drop off is not as steep as it first appears.

Chris said it was amazing to see so much green in the middle of the desert.

One of the dads made sand boards which were fun but Z and E weren't quite big enough to use them properly.

Unfortunately after spending a good deal of the morning digging out that wasn't the end of it.They had to drive out through some mud flats that appeared solid but just beneath the surface was mud, very soft mud.

It really was unusual to see so much natural greenery. The only other places we've seen green is on camp.

You can't travel far without seeing a camel caravan but this time

they got so see the water truck delivering water to the camel trough.

The last stop was a old fort. At first glance it looks like an unfinished building.

Inside it is a bit more interesting.

But not too interesting as they were there less than 30 minutes.

Some one knew that the fort was used in the 1500's

As usual there is no signage letting visitors know any details about the place.

The boys arrived home very late in the evening hungry but extremely happy. They loved camping with dad and friends in the desert.