Jennie and Eric's Adventures: "Signing Dunes"-March 19, 2010

We loved the dunes from last weekend so much we decided we couldn't get enough.

This time we headed to the dunes close to Doha (35 minute drive) called the "singing dunes".

We've heard about these dunes since we arrived so naturally we were anxious to check them

out! We left around 3pm on Friday with a caravan of 7 vehicles packed with materials to make

a campfire, lots and lots of food, including the ingredients to make s'mores (still can't believe

how relatively easy it was to find marshmallows)....we didn't find graham crackers - though I

am told they do have them in Doha- but we did find "biscuits" with chocolate on top, a perfect

improvisation!

So anyhow, we headed out to the dessert and on the way look what we found....

Of course more camels :)

You can't really see how very high this is from this photo, but believe me, it was high! And the slope was intense. Very rewarding to climb, though!

Some of our neighbors climing the signing dunes the "easy" way.

Some of the kids running down :)

My friend, Dede and I starting our trek...

About 1/2 way up ....

Almost there...so proud.

We made it!!! It was definitely cool at the top. It was quite a climb though. It was like doing the exercise "mountain climbers" where you have your hands and feet on the ground and you alternate feet like you're climing a mountain...except in our case, we really were!! By the time we got to the top, it was really windy and the sand was blowing in our faces big time. It was also really hot...it hit 100 degrees fareinheit that day so it wasn't too comfortable being up there for long.

We are now sliding down to hear the "singing"....the vibration of your body against the very fine sand makes a "humming/singing" sound...it's pretty neat.

After we heard the dunes singing for a while, we decided it was going to be more fun to run. This is a photo of me with our neighbor, Martha.

Part of our "set-up"

Eric playing cricket for the first time. Our Scottish neighbor, Malcom set up the game and we all gave it a try. If you've ever played, you may have been like me and wanting to run afer each hit like in baseball. I think it takes a bit getting used to but it was fun.

The BBQ!

This is a photo of our friend and neighbor, Nick in his car going down the dunes. After our last weekend with Arabain Adventures, he decieded he wanted to try it out. He even de-flated his tires!

Nick and our other neighbor, Brian got stuck so Eric took this wood to help them.

Eric and Steve climbing up the dunes to help with tools in hand. What a climb!!

Some of the group (from left) Wendi, Amy, Melissa, Biny and me.

Our adorable neighbor, Barrett (Wendi and Nick's son). Not only is this photo priceless, but the process of him getting into the chair and having his Gatorade with him was too cute. He isn't quite tall enough to be able to sit in the chair easily, so it took him a few minutes to finally get his bottom in the chair. Then he didn't have his Gatorade, so he got out, put the Gatorade near by so he could grab it. Then he realized he couldn't reach it. We showed him the drink slot in he chair, he got a real kick out of it saying, "wow, it fits perfectly"...it was priceless!!