Turning 40 in the Desert

Was waiting till I had something to say and now we have plenty:

Birthday Dhow trip

Ken, a friend of ours, and I both had birthdays around the same time so Linda, his wife, and Ande arranged a combined dhow trip with friends to an island not far off Doha. It was a beautiful evening, we cruised past the waterfront and all climbed onto the top of the boat for drinks (non-alcoholic) great views and a cool breeze. We moored off the island and swam over for a look, hoping the jet skis that were hooning around didn't run us down. Matija jumped in for a swim then we settled down for a charcoal cooked BBQ on the boat before cruising back into the sunset. It was a magic night and the we struck the weather perfectly.

Pressies - Had some wonderful cards from NZ, thanks Mum and Dad, George and Mary, Deb, Fi and Marius. Thanks also to the Strydoms for the magazines, how did you know I was interested in motorcycles, lifestyle block articles and mens health for the modern metrosexual male (maybe not the metrosexual bit).

I got a great little netbook computer from Ande and Matija, which is v. cool and will be the perfect thing to use while travelling. The battery on the MacBook Pro is stuffed so it means I am portable again. Also great for GPS navigation - which brings me to:

Camping at the Inland Sea.

Everyone has said to take a guide etc when going down to the Inland Sea, a huge inlet in the South of Doha where you have to drive across the desert and through sand dunes. A few keen campers from Cognition (including us) decided this was unnecessary and we could do it by ourselves. As part of the Navigation subcommitte I decided the easiest thing was to buy a basic handheld GPS ($120 NZ) and load in the co-ordinates from a marked route on the internet. I did so. I also scavenged some firewood from old pallets on empty land beside Matija's nursery. We packed tents, deck chairs, sleeping bags, food etc and borrowed Ken and Linda's 4WD as Linda's back was out and they weren't coming.

We headed into the unknown on a Thursday night, driving 50mins to the edge of the desert, deflating tires for the sand then following GPS pointers across the desert for about 30kms. It's actually a pretty well defined track - more like a highway, most of it across hard salt pans with a few patches of soft sand between. You could probably do it without GPS, but you could also get a bit lost too. We found our way to the tip of a peninsular then set up camp in a little sandy basin just as it was getting dark- 3 vehicles, 4 tents and a firepit. We had a neat evening around the fire and hit the hay. It was pretty hot for sleeping in the tents and the wind blew all night - tent pegs don't hold in the sand, but we'd filled supermarket bags with sand to tie the guy ropes to. Got to see our first scorpion - the small yellow harmless type - which was playing in the sand under Naomi's deck chair. Not much sleep and we were up bright and early to pack up and drive around the peninsular. We went for a swim around the peninsular, partway across a pretty treacherous piece of salt pan (gotta be careful you don't lose your vehicle in that stuff) but found a lovely little inlet with great swimming further up. There is about 1.5km of water across to Saudi/UAE and John, one of the team, had flippers and swam across for a look. We wondered whether we would ever see him again, but he did get back in one piece without time in a Saudi detention camp. There were also plenty of cockles and fish and the next time out John took a spear gun - no luck yet though.

We followed our noses out of there and had some exciting driving across soft sand to get back to the main track in. Ande was driving Naomi's 4WD and got bogged, but backed out and found her way around, nearly intercepting a local's Landcrab coming the other way. I led her into a patch of soft sand further along and the little XTrail got bogged. We lowered tyres and dug sand out, I'm sure we would have got it out by ourselves but Osama bin Laden happened to drive past and easily towed us out, giving the good advice to drive on the hard shingle 15m to the side of where we actually went! Nice guy, shame about the terrorism!

It was an awesome night out and we repeated it the following weekend with a slightly different crew. We've now got a grill and hotplate for the fire and we're getting used to the route and the sandy driving - a good tyre guage has also meant we've deflated the tyres more, which certainly helps. Matija loves playing in the sand, running and sliding down sand dunes and swimming in the sea. Everyone's enjoyed spending time with her and it's been a pleasure to get out of Doha and into the wilderness. We went back and camped at the good swimming spot after Dharan scared the fish and the fishermen off with his kitesurfer. If we do get back here next year we'll look at getting a 4WD so we can enjoy many more weekends in the desert!

MOTO GP

Went to see the world class motorcycle racing the night B4 my birthday. It was another beautiful night, Ande was a little sceptical, but when we got out there we had a ball. We saw final practice, then two rounds of smaller bikes before the big boys. We'd picked our favourites in the smaller classes and the racing was really exciting with the bikes absolutely flying down the home straight, passing each other all the time and racing side by side. The big bikes were incredibly fast and the noise was deafening as they battled it out. The crowd was right behind Valentino Rossi, nine times world champ and there was a huge roar when Casey Stoner, the top qualifier, who was pulling away from the field, fell off. Rossi held on for the win and we got home after midnight, on the morning of my birthday.

CIRCUS

We've been to a couple of circuses with Matija. The best was free at Souq Waqif. There were lions, tigers, horses, camels, a hippo, monkeys, snakes, alligators, dwarves, clowns, acrobats, trapeze artists and motorbikes in a cage - all the old circus things that you don't see in NZ anymore. Matija loved it. We went to another one which had an entrance fee a couple of weeks later. It was still pretty good, but lacked the big animals and wasn't quite as good. Great fun and hard to believe it was free.

WORLD INDOOR ATHLETICS

Also went to the Doha leg of the World Indoor Athletics champs. Neat to see world class athletes close up. We saw hurdles and sprints, mens shotput, high jump, pole vault, triple and long jump. It was an exciting night, particularly the battle for the women's high jump and another thing that we wouldn't have the opportunity to do in NZ.

MATIJA'S EARS

Matija has had a few ear infections and we were concerned about her hearing so took her to a doctor and a specialist. There has been a problem with fluid behind the eardrums but after about 5 weeks of nasal sprays, decongestant and drops she is much improved. We've got to continue with the nasal spray for a while but her hearing is at 95% and should continue to improve. It was a bit of a performance administering the spray (headlock and screaming) but she has been getting better and better and now she doesn't even cry. She is growing up fast, getting as brown as a berry and talking much, much more. She loves Starfish and has made good friends with the camping crew and with a couple of older Indian kids, Ashwan and Ashwadi, who she often joins for bike riding in the carpark downstairs.

Otherwise things are ticking along - I've done a session in a local boys school, which was good fun and I'm visiting a primary on Wednesday as part of Book Week. Ande's work is going extremely well. I'll add a few things soon and include some more photos soon.

love V, Ande and Matija.