The Last Leg
The Last Leg
After we left Al Khor, we had to head northwest to connect to a highway that would take us southwest to the last two cities on our “circle tour” of northern Qatar (see the map in the first blog entry for this trip). On the way to that highway intersection we traveled across some of the most desolate parts of Qatar that we saw. Qatar is quite flat and basically a desert environment. So anything that sticks up 100 feet into the air, is visible for quite a distance. We saw an impressive looking building looming in the distance as we were driving.
We concluded, in the end, that this was a gate house for a large tract of land that was probably a farm. We thought we saw irrigation sprinklers in the far distance beyond the closed gate. Fencing in a straight line from the side walls of this structure stretched as far as the eye could see; so, if this impressive structure was indeed a gate house, whatever farmhouse was beyond the gate and in the distance most certainly would have put J.R. Ewing’s Southfork to shame.
Peter and Georg set about changing the tire as Lil walked a few dozen meters back and across the road to chase down the hub cap that had decided to leave our group when the tire flattened. These tire-changing pictures simply do not do the scene any justice, any reality justice. It must have been at least 120F and the wind was blowing more than 15 mph. Changing this tire was like working in a convection oven. Thank goodness we had brought a couple of bottles of water along on the trip as we certainly drank them all when we were finished changing the tire. Oh by the way, the flat tire must have been at least 50F hotter than the road on which we couldn’t kneel (notice the sandals that we used as something to kneel on). We could barely touch it and had to use rags any pieces of paper and cardboard we could find in the trunk to move it from the changing spot into the trunk.
All fixed up we headed back on the road towards Zekreet and Dukhan a little more vigilant for holes in the road and only moderately worried as to what we might have to do if we had another flat...
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The Road to Zekreet and Dukhan