Category: Middle East

A Weekend in Fujairah

In the middle of March my parents came out for a visit to the U.A.E. and I went into full tour guide mode.  We had debated a trip back up to RAK as the hotel and beaches were just so incredible but we opted for a trip to the opposite side of U.A.E. and the […]

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Road Trip to RAK

After taking longer than expected to get settled in, we’re finally ready to start exploring!  We’ve been having day trips to explore the areas around us and going to Kite Beach but this was our first full weekend trip away.  Of course, there was a long search for the proper dog kennel facilities for Sebastian, […]

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East of Khurais and Stuck in the Sand – KSA

A long long time ago the eastern half of Saudi Arabia was under water.  As a result there are a lot of marine fossils and coral and limestone to be found when out and about in the desert (or the bouldering wadi we went to which was all limestone).  Our guide book has a day […]

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Our Trip to Rawdat Khoraim – KSA

Apparently this is the most densely vegetated area within 100km of Riyadh.  We took a picnic lunch and headed out on a Saturday in January.  The weather was very mild unlike the really cold days we’ve been having in Riyadh.  There are multiple places to park and originally we chose the most obvious place just […]

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Camel Trail #1, South of Riyadh – KSA

On the first weekend of the new year we took the Silver Camel out to find one of the ancient tracks up the Tuwaiq escarpment.  The guide book we have, Desert Treks from Riyadh, says that there are at least 4 tracks leading up that were made in ancient times to ease the movement of camels and […]

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The Camel Beauty Contest, KSA

I had no idea that camel beauty contest were a thing but they are!  There is some serious prize money involved as well.  Vice has a short video about a contest in UAE and the winner gets $1,000,000!  The KSA Camel Festival, located in Um Rgabah in the Dahna Desert about 310 km northeast from Riyadh, is split over […]

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Our First Bouldering Trip, KSA

Armed with some new info about a recently discovered area that has bouldering potential, we loaded the Silver Camel and headed south of town.  The GPS did it’s job and an hour and forty-five minutes later we were there.  On the way we saw a few camels here and there and a truck full too! […]

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A Day in the DQ, KSA

On a chilly November Friday we took a little field trip to the Diplomatic Quarter. It’s this part of Riyadh that houses all of the Embassies and staff. There are quite a few parks and a trail that goes around the whole quarter. It’s also an abaya free zone! (Actually it’s more of an abaya […]

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