Desert.

A small bit of Qatar's desert is the sand-dune variety.  We took an overnight trip with Sarah's co-workers outto the dunes, to see the "inland sea" which turns out to be a shallow inlet from the Persian Gulf.

The tour started with camel rides.

Our friend Doug Duckworth is the camel jockey in yellow.

Dune jumping.

Also, you can see the tidal inlet area behind Sarah and Matt, which is called "The Inland Sea."

Sarah and Sue Goodwoman pose in front of Saudi Arabia.

Those distant hills beyond the water belong to Saudi.

Sue and Doug negotiate aesthetics.

And now for something completely different.

More desert.  On the northern coast of Qatar, we found this ruined village.  We had to do just a slight bit of off-roading in your Toyota Yaris to approach.

According to this sign, the place is called Algamel.

But it doesn't show up on any English language maps.

The distribution of the bullet holes makes me think the shooter had an automatic weapon.

The only structure still in one piece was the call-to-prayer tower.

Wood truss beams and... cement mixed with big rocks?

Haram!

Infidel Chick in the Prayer Tower!

This is the view from the prayer tower.

This is Matt contemplating the view.

Goodbye, Algamel.

Stop!

Camel Time!

In the middle of Qatar is a huge camel-racing complex.

Camels can cost more than $30,000 US.

This was not a race day.  These camels are just being taken to the track for an exercise run.

Spanking Machine Ground Zero.

Seriously, the "robots" they refer to are contraptions that get strapped on the back of the camel.  The robot's job is to replace the small boy, whose job was to spank the camel and make it go faster.