Sand Sledding in Abqaiq

Marie is an Aramco Brat. On so many levels - trust me! When she was growing up here she spent a large portion of the time in a town called Abqaiq. Aramco consists of many, many camps but there are four major sites that exsist in the Eastern Province. Dhahran is the largest. Marie lived there for one year before leaving for boarding school. Ras Tanura is the second largest (and it isn't even close) and this is where we live. We are like the red headed step child to Dhahran. I am quite comfortable with the relationship myself. It's the same relationship that Philly has with New York. Now those of you who know me well know that I despise the city of New York. This all started a bunch of years back when I went for a weekend to visit my buddy Murph in Hells Kitchen and I had to pay $15 for a pitcher of beer. I was used to paying $4 for a pitcher at Walios down at Widener U and this sent my head reeling. In the end I don't despise Dhahran nearly as much as New York. The people down there are pretty nice. And they treat us with respect because in the end we live at the beach and they don't! But for the umpteenth time - I digress. The other two camps are Abqaiq and Udhaliyah. They are quite isolated and small. Real small. I am not going to go into detail to protect the innocent but they are tiny towns. When Marie and I first met she would often tell me about how great it was to grow up in Saudi. As a Philly boy (ok - suburbs boy - Catholic grade school, private boys high school, private local university and main line banking Dad) I thought she was nuts. Who the hell would want to grow up in the "middle of nowhere"? All I ever heard about was how great Mansour Camp was. Years later when we finally got to visit Abqaiq we went looking for the Mansour Camp. I had high expectations. Well when we got there all that was left was a parking lot with weeds growing through the macadam surrounded by a chain link fence. Needless to say my darling bride was crushed and I felt really bad for her. But once I saw the camps the transformation began. Ten years later here I am.

Marie had said from the time she had arrived back in Saudi that when Christmas came she wanted to go sand sledding. I had heard of this before but as a person from the Northeast and an avid skier I thought it sounded ridiculous but... We met up with a family who has been in Saudi for a long time. They are very kind and included us in a trip they had planned to head back down to Marie's home town of Abqaiq to take part in this yearly Christmas ritual. A caravan of seven SUV's were going to leave RT at 9:00 in the morning to drive the hour and a half or more south to Abqaiq to find the large dunes outside of town on which we would "sled".

Here we are congragating in the parking lot waiting to head off into the desert. We were very happy to see so many of our friends included of the trip.

We drove out of RT and as we headed away from the coastline we entered the desert. The dunes and jebals started to grow and the camels became more frequent. Seeing camels in the desert here is the equivalent of seeing deer on the side of the road back home. It was quite a transformation as we drove accross the desert at 90mph. It was pretty surreal witnessing American culture slam into Saudi geography. There we were flying through the Saudi desert while listening to Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes" blare through my ipod which we hooked up to the radio. Meanwhile the kids were sitting in the second row of seats watching "The Incedibles" on the DVD player. Everytime we came over a rise and saw a heard of camel they would start screaming and pointing. All in all it was an extremely cool experience. And we had not even reached the dunes yet.

The dunes we would sled on were just outside the town of Abqaiq. We pulled to the side of the road to air down our tires and then headed out into the desert. This was my first time driving in the desert and my rookie status was soon confirmed as I was the first person to get stuck (I did not air down enough). Once I got out and fixed things it was a blast. The truck performed well and it was great right up to the point where I rolled the window down. You see when you turn the front wheel to the right the tire sticks out and kicks up sand. You can guess where. Right in the open window. Rookie move number two. Here is a picture of me digging out.

The dunes were nothing like Shaybah but they were still huge. This is every kids dream and the two older kids took off for the top. Living in the world's biggest sandbox does have it's advantages. Here they are running up the front of the dune.

Getting to the top rewarded you with an impressive view.

Anna was happy to just play at the bottom. In the end all she really needs is her sippy cup. Our sleds were not the best for sand sledding but Sarah gave it here best.

Overall an excellent day that we will not soon forget!