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A gorgeous morning - crystal clear sky with a few faint whisps of cloud and a wonderfully frosty feel to the air. As I was finishing a cup of delicious tea flavored with cinnamon our guide arrived and at just after 0800 we set off into the sand. We had driven through similar dunes in Tunisia, but here we had the advantage of someone to lead us through rather than me having to run ahead of the car and pick the best route! The dunes ran along a wide ridge, and the views across the surrounding desert were quite incredible. The sand was the same colour as the desert around Rum but much finer - similar to granulated sugar. And incredibly soft - you could hear the car working hard to haul herself through the sand and to make things a little easier on the engine we ran the whole way in low ratio. An hour into the drive we passed a strange sight - a bedouin man carrying a battered fuel can and leading a small goat - who knows how far he had come or where on earth he was going, but he seemed happy. Our local guide charged on ahead - he had the advantage of driving the classic desert vehicle; a green Toyota pickup - lightweight, plenty of power and equipped with tall, thin tyres - it just seemed to float across the sand, whereas Florence and the two Land Cruisers puffed and heaved their way along.
The sand got worse and we had to stop to let air out of the tyres - MUST NOT GET STUCK!!! After three hours we were through the worst (if that was easy I'm glad we had someone to show us the way!) and the guide left us to return to Adfa while we stopped for a late and much needed breakfast. No time to sit around enjoying the view - we still had a couple of hours to go before we reached Haiyania... Back onto harder track, running across a plain and flanked by curling sand dunes. Unfortunately the track was unbelievably stony and we were reduced to crawling along at 10 mph in an attempt to preserve our tyres. At one point Abdullah sped up - and was rewarded with a shredded rear tyre. Not good for one's patience or sense of humour.
Our arrival at Haiyania was rather later than planned, which gave Richard and I less time to explore the castle than we had hoped - we still had four hours driving ahead of us, across more horrible corrugations. Haiyania village was similar to Adfa - thankfully also with a fuel station as the soft sand of the previous 40 miles had forced our fuel consumption down into single figures. This was a fuel station with real character - the Health and Safety Executive would have a fit. The petrol pump was powered by an ingeneous system - 20 feet behind the pump sat an old Toyota, resting on bricks. A lethal looking bundle of wires ran from the engine to a light bulb attached to a post next to the pump. The engine was started, first gear engaged and the light flickered into life. All that was needed was to flick the switch below the light and hey presto! The fuel pumped shuddered and screeched its way into life without blowing us all to pieces. |
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