Zekreet

Another Friday, another ramble. This time to Zekreet, or Zirkreet, out west near Dukhan.
More sea, sand and... Oh, sand.

Lots of fossils, remains of yesterday's rain and some ridiculously soft white stuff which crumbled like semi-dry paste when you touched it. How can this stuff have stood for so long?

From here we drove a couple of miles to a film set where a Qatari series had been made. Nobody found out anything about what or when the series was but it was quite an impressive set. A complete courtyarded house of the type I imagine would accommodate a few families. Or maybe it's more of a fortress-village. Hard to say. It would be quite habitable as all rooms and roofs are complete. Outside, a number of well-like structures (or maybe fire pits) stood around and an ostrich trotted about.

This is a good example of early air-conditioning - the wind tower. The tower opens straight into the room below so that any breeze there might be will flow into the room. Not much else to say really.

Beyond the film-set we drove down into an area surrounded by cliffs where little dwellings (also part of the set) were built against the cliff walls and on unlikely lumps of rock. Must keep an eye out for a re-run of this show!

Car buying

Choosing a car was interesting, what with browsing Qatar Living's classifieds. So many tempting vehicles...

MB Chasis 5000 Gallon Sewage Water Tanker

By Sureshnambiar on Mon, 23/03/2009 - 6:40pm Model: 2008

Contact number: 4561445 / 5807919
Description:
2008 Model, 2 Nos. Mercedez Benz chassis with cab type Actros 3331/45/6x4, 24 tons payload, mounted on the MB chassis 5000 gallon Sewage Water Tanker with pump and hoses with excellent condition for immediate sale. Interested parties, please contact Mr. Suresh, on telephone # 4561445 or mobile # 5807919.


Tanker 8000 galon

By mercury1608 on Sun, 01/02/2009 - 3:18pm Model: 2002
Price: 60 000 QR
Contact number: 5123412
Description:
drinking water tanker 8000 Galon model 2002 in good condition


boom truck 3 ton unic crane for sale

By syed shah on Sun, 01/02/2009 - 6:27pm Model: 1984
Price: 85 000 QR
Contact number: +9745379746
Description:
mitsubishi boom truck 3 ton unic crane in a good condition.



Actually, I quite fancied that last one.
But this is what I settled on:

(A nearly-new Mitsubishi Outlander. Pictured here on our latest 'ramble')

Another amusing aspect of these ads is that in amongst the lists of leather seats, 3.6l engines, cd players etc, a few state "Accident Free". However, the majority offer "Free Accident" which is so much more appealing.

My mate Zhang Xinhua

... or maybe Qin Kai.

Out for a little jog on Friday morning, I came across a handful of people limbering up outside a hotel wearing tracksuits that announced that they were the Chinese something team. One member waved hello with a cheery smile so I stopped for a brief conversation in sign and smile language. My question was answered with a graceful swoop of a hand - divers.

Back home I googled and discovered that the world series had come to Doha, an invitation event featuring the top-placed Olympic divers. I realised that my "What sport?" question had very probably been addressed to one of China's golden boys, holder of half a dozen Olympic medals, someone who would have been mobbed outside a Beijing hotel.

But it meant that I did go to see the evening session on Saturday. Not an event I'd normally seek out, but it was rather enjoyable and not only because there's little to do in Doha. Mark and I quickly came to fancy ourselves as expert judges in between being awed specatators. Other highlights included the Mexican syncronised 10m platform buttock-wiping and the pairs of men in speedos face-to-face as they practised synch-dives on the poolside with the stilted grace of music-box wind-up ballerinas.

Doha is chasing - and getting - major sporting events. In January I went to the men's semi-finals at the tennis, watching Murray, Federer, Roddick and the Frenchman whose name I've forgotten. The cycling I've mentioned here already. Events are free or unbelievably cheap. The stands are rarely full.

Two or three years ago, Doha hosted the Asian games, so they definitely have world class facilities. I remember reading last year that there was some speculation over their Olympic bid - Doha didn't make the shortlist and one UK newspaper reported claims that this was because with the money that could be put behind the bid it would almost cerainly win. The official reason was that the proposal was to hold the games in October, outside the regular summer Olympic window. I never read any more about it, so don't know if this view was shared by others.

Anyway, part of being here and staying sane is to say yes to anything. Except maybe synchronised swimming.

The world according to Rachel Ray

Rachel Ray hosts a chat-come-cookery show of the type where lines such as "Now I'm adding the broccoli" elicits rapturous applause. Anyway, I paused my channel-hopping today because she had Gordon Ramsay on the show. Discussing simple family cooking, she helpfully explained to Ramsay that "There's a recession in the US right now." Ramsay, I'm pleased to say, widened her horizons and explained that it isn't just in the States. Sadly, I can't help thinking that she needed his help on this.

The other point of course is that English-language TV is thin on the ground here.

Western Qatar

This week's ramble was more of a GPS car treasure hunt, which was slightly disappointing from a rambling point of view, but well worth the effort in other ways. The object was to locate certain 'earth caches' which for those interested can be logged by answering a series of questions. Mark, Alain and I opted out of all work-sheet based activities and simply soaked up the sights and enjoyed learning from the experts who luckily were in our team.

The first stop was at Zekreet Pedestals, where limestone makes some interesting formations as softer rock erodes.

From there we drove on to a meteor crater near Dukhan. It is believed that a meteorite fell here in the 1940's but the crater was only found relatively recently, when people began to look into stories told by aging Bedouins. In 1989 a piece of meteorite was found in the area. The GoogleEarth picture definitely suggests crater. (If you want to find it on GoogleEarth, the grid ref is: N 25 24.021 E 050 50.471)

At the time of the impact, the area was swamp, so there is not a big crater-like hole. However, the outer ripple of the crater was clear to see, as it is in the satellite photo. In the centre, there is a sudden profusion of plant-life - lots of little scrubby shrubs. This is apparently due to the meteorite's fall into the swamp, which caused a ripple out, then just like a stone dropped into water, a splash up. What splashed up was richer soil from deeper ground - hence the plants.

Standing in the crater, we were 8m below sea-level, which seemed rather odd in such a dry place. But there was a dampness just beneath the top crust of the sand. The (brackish) water-table is very high here and the area is prone to flooding.

By now, I was getting into the four-wheel driving, beginning to enjoy the heavy drag through the sand with soft sideways slippage. The car definitely isn't made for super heavy-duty off-road, but it was fine for this, and we topped out over the rim of the crater with what I can only immodestly call ease and control. OK, so it wasn't that high, but still....

Next, we headed towards the petroleum fields, trying to find access through to the beach. Signposts announced cheery things like 'Stripping Plant', 'De-gassing plant' and 'Sewage treatment works'. Pipelines criss-crossed the landscape. The 'beautiful' beach was strewn with litter, but we settled down for a lazy lunch. Walking away from the sea, you could hear the oil flowing through the pipes.

So today I've stood on oil and 8m under the sea. Not bad.

Al Kharara

An organised ramble to Al Kharara with Qatar Natural History Group, including a lizard expert and a plant expert as guides and a passing geologist as a fellow newbie to the group. It was fabulous to be out in the fresh air, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The stroll was very gentle, the 'sights' few and far between, but it didn't matter a bit - I can't think of a way I'd have rather spent this morning. Met some lovely people, wandered in the sun, saw a couple of lizards and found out a bit about a couple of plants.


Geologically, the area is quite interesting as it is covered with a variety of water-rounded pebbles. These were washed down into an alluvial fan by heavy rain in Saudi something like 30 million years ago. Apparently the rest of Qatar has almost nothing but limestone and it was interesting to see this evidence of so much water.



Ramblers' parking:

Featuring.... second from the right.... my new car!
Not bad for its very first outing!
Its a bit of beast - by my standards even if not by local ones - causing me huge eco-guilt, but I am finding ways to justify it. (eg living through the commute on the Mesaieed road and driving off-road to places like this). And it's damn nice to drive. Still, I was very glad to have co-drivers and navigators for this trip, thanks to the car-pooling of the group. Great company too.

This car is a bit all-singing, all dancing in a number of superfluous ways but the absolute highlight came when after an hour of driving, a tuneful little chime sounded. I looked at the dashboard to see what it might be about, to find that the odo and petrol etc display had been replaced by a picture of a cup of tea and the message that it was time for a break!!! I waited for a cup-holder to slide open with promised cup of tea, but sadly this one, much more useful, feature appears to be absent.

Dark days

The heart has been ripped out of the place.