A desert jeep safari's is not the most luxurious experience. The passengers sit in benches in the back of small pickup truck and bounce along in the desert. We opted for the two hour trip as we were a bit creaky from our 4 hour drive to Wadi the day earlier. After our two hours we looked at each other and wondered how any one could endure four hours of that. These old bones are feeling the experience. Our driver was named Friday because he was born on a Friday. He was a Bedouin and lived most of his live in the desert, living with his mother in the traditional way. He only moved into a house in a village 10 years ago. We drove all around on rock, on sand and up and down big sand dunes. Great fun and we enjoyed it.
We are in position
This is one beat up pickup
Right away we get up close to the big rocks
Sometimes the formations look like Arabic script
A sign for the petroglyphs
A face rock is front and center
So many different formations
Nor so face like from this angle
The petroglyphs
Some oryx and ibex antelopes
Some bullet holes
Deep tracks in the soft sand
Large bands of white sandstone
A large circular rock must have fallen our
A lion head or sphinx rock
Scooping up the yellow sand for use later
A bit scary here in this pass
Open sand
I could see some toes getting carved out of these rocks
Tall and taller
A natural arch
Great colors
An elephant trunk?
A falcon facing right or a pelican facing left
The arch and the loaf of bread
The day is getting long
Outcropping of pink
A pancake on top
All the colors
Jeeps converging on the sunset place
Otherworldly shapes
Heading into this box canyon
Towering rocks on either side
The notch to the left is Lawrence's Spring
We had to get a running start to get to the top of this sand dune
Down there is the entrance to the spring
Camel petroglyphs
Looking down into the entrance area
One big crack in the rocks
Leslie next to our deluxe benches
When it rains the sand must give way to the water
Where the water runs plants grow
Very different layers in the sandstone
Heading off again
Looks like a baboon has jumped onto our pickup
Very soft sand here
Friday is pout of the truck
This is why he got the other colored sand
The two different sand colors come from the breakdown of different sandstones
Very sweet!
But there is more!
Now we all got in on the act
Heading to the sunset point
the moon is coming up
All the sand is picking up the reddish pink light
Very colorful
What a strange rock
Another big sand dune
It is an adventure
Almost full
Off to chase the sunlight
Our private sunset spot
Cool desert plants
Toughing it out in the sand
A rock shelter for a camp fire
Well worn
Fox tracks
No one else as far as the eye can see
Lizard tracks?
The magic hour light
It is almost down
Get our selfies
Not the most comfortable spot to watch the sunset
Moon behind us
This is the jeep shadow
Last light
the longest shadow
What looks like a huge column coming out of the rock
The real last light
Just the glow left
A very crowded sunset spot
Back to camp we go!
We probably went 16 total miles
1189 feet elevation gain was surprising
