Bluffs at Thamama

     WOW is truly the only way to explain Thamama. It’s an Area of Saudi Arabia North East of Riyadh, which the Saudis use for a multitude of things. Primarily it is the home of the largest Camel Soque in the county, secondarily its used as a recreation area for all sorts of ATV's dune buggies and the occasional impromptu camel race.

  Today’s plan was to go out and see the camels. As we approach along the main highway you can see tens of thousands of camels ranging in size color and most importantly value. One needs to only stop and try their hand at bartering for a camel to get the show of a lifetime. We decided to stop at one of the venders with a large herd of white camels. For some reason the white ones are worth more than a new Mercedes and BMW combined. (Those are the exact words of the sales man and was confirmed with one of my local Saudi friends) As we get out of the car the odor of a barnyard nightmare hits your face like sledge hammer. Then as the sales men approach you realize that the smell is not only the camels but also the people. Most people in Saudi Arabia DONT have a BO problem as they relish perfumes and incense. Each and every one of them wears a different scent and wants his or her sent to be the strongest in the crowd. So walking through a mall or shop can be an adventure for your nose as well. But the camel sales me are form a more traditional way of life similar to the "boudin" but aren’t nomads. They simply live in large tents and sleep on the ground. Now these are definitely the most lavish tents I have ever seen or imagined but none the less they live in tent and only bath when the camels turn there noses up at the stench. Now as the sales men brought over several camels I was awestruck at its shear size and lack of grace. When asked, a camel will walk the desert forever but trying to get them to do things like walk in a circle around three American tourists was like watching the three stooge’s. So instead the salesmen simple brought over bread and began to feed them first with his hands then with his mouth. I nearly barfed when it licked his face. Soon the sales man realized all we wanted to do was look and take pictures (I think that if I were to buy a camel customs would be a little difficult) they became very agitated and began demanding money. Unfortunately our opportunity to ride them was cut out. SO instead we rented ATV's and had a gas fumed race across the open dunes, jumping sand bluffs and attempting to climb the endless hills of sand. 

  The most beautiful thing we did today was simple make a right-hand turn off the main road and see where it leads. No one had even imagined what it was we were about to discover.

   We turned off the paved road in a rental car that was actually barrowed from a friend that was out of country on vacation (sorry Doug) heading into the desert on hard ground over loose rock.  It was fun to say the least in a compact sedan with a whole whopping 4 inches of ground clearance.  When we maxed out the car we got out and walked. Now the idea was to find a cliff that overlooks Thamama we had a general idea but no idea if we could reach it. As we walked we joked about being stuck out in the desert and suddenly as if it appeared out of the sand beneath our feet we found the cliff. (This is an optical allusion the Saudis call "masbaH" as you approach cliffs you walk up a gentle incline, often too gentle to even notice, that’s created by the wind storms, this incline helps your mind merge the ground your walking on with the ground seen in the distance beyond the cliff, making for a rather startling surprise when your confronted with a several hundred foot drop) As our eyes adjusted to be able to pick out the difference between the deserts we stood on and the desert that was in the distance we realized the treasure we had found. A stunning panoramic landscape of cliffs overlooking the rocky desert that in the distance merged in to the brilliant red sand of Thamama. To those of you that believe that the desert is a barren waste land, must realize there is a beauty to this desolation and emptiness.