Camping & Camels

There is something thoroughly romantic about camping in the desert. Evenings are (relatively) mild, night skies are crystal clear, & there are no bugs. What more could one want? Sixteen of us headed west on Hallowe’en towards Dukhan & the Rasa Brouq peninsula which is said to provide the best camping in Qatar. Our convoy consisted of four SUVs (all four-wheel drive) & two saloon cars. As we turned off the highway onto the desert track that would eventually lead to the beach where we would set up camp, it was immediately clear that the saloon cars would not make it all the way. After a couple of kilometers we abandoned the cars, one with its passengers (family of four), the other with all its gear, to wait until two empty SUVs could return to pick them all up. So we traveled on, sometimes on well worn tracks & sometimes just plunging across the desert. After another half hour or so we saw a small village on the horizon with a mosque surrounded by houses & old stone huts. What a surprise when we discovered that this was a set built in 2000 by Qatar Television for the filming of a series called “The Sons of the Wolf” (“Eial al Deeb”). This soap-opera style movie was set in the Qatar of five hundred years ago & the set was designed to last ten years, with the hope that more movies would be made there. Still waiting! On we went & reached our camp site fifteen minutes later. “Camp site” is a bit of an overstatement. There are no facilities, no electricity, no water, & you have to bring your own wood if you want a fire. Eventually, everyone was reunited with their gear & we had a couple of hours to swim, set up tents, & begin preparing supper. The water of the Arabian Gulf was the best we’ve been in since we came to Qatar & we made the most of the opportunity. Food was plentiful & well cooked over the open fire (wood & charcoal) & we sat around the fire at the edge of the water & just talked & listened to a guitar. We even ate smores! The night was so pleasant & we had a great sleep, waking to a splendid sunrise which heralded a full breakfast with oranges, French toast, & very good coffee. We had to be back in Doha by noon so packed up early & shuttled back to our saloon cars. Luckily there was a GPS with us, otherwise we would have had real problems trying to find the car in the shimmering heat of the desert. Just before we rejoined the road we came across a group of camels & made the most of their tameness for some good photo ops. They are not wild & do belong to someone but spend most of their lives wandering freely over the desert. A fitting end to a wonderful trip.