travelators

The weekend gone by was possibly the last one we had to squeeze an extra few hours out of before work would demand that Robert would have to spend at least some weekends...Well...Working.  We both came down with a mysterious bug that floored us totally for 36hrs on the Wednesday night before our Thursday (Saudi Friday) weekend kicks off. The worst fever, headache, lungs shutting down and muscle spasms you could imagine. Just when we thought it might be a good idea to see a doctor before we croak, it disappeared just as miraculously as it arrived. It left us battered and bruised.  Mind over matter, pack the Cruiser and let's just keep moving, we decided.   As usual, it is up to me to select a route and get all our stuff ready while Robert does a bit of work. When he gets home, we can just pop everything into the car and off we go. Without fail, I remember everything and always study the history, facts, sites to see, best route options for us and pitfalls along the way tha...

Brave or stupid, call us what you want, but we set off and found the road that we wanted to the Empty Quarter.  You can take an easy option and go on the tar roads all the way down the side of the UAE border, or you can do it the hard way - like us - and go off road. As we all know very well, the desert is not something to be taken lightly. Precautions were taken... We bought new fashion flat plastic jerry cans for extra fuel, we took extra water and we took a bit of extra food just in case of a breakdown. Our normal gear always includes some recovery stuff, a multi purpose little spade and our camping must-haves.  We try to keep it as light as possible simply because when it comes to off-roading you don't need a lot of stuff making noise and hopping around behind you and it is much easier to set up camp every night when you have less to unload after a hard day's travel. Going to the Empty Quarter is hard travelling and to boot, Summer all of a sudden showed up and it was a wh...

Lonelyness is something the expat wife has a constant battle with. If you are not careful you can quickly fall into the various bad habits that we see plenty of around us. From becoming more and more reclusive and self-absorbed to drinking all day long, to staying in bed all day long, to getting fat and bitchy...We have seen it all. Since i could feel myself slipping into the reclusive catagory, i started to nag about getting a dog.  There are a few problems with having dogs in Saudi Arabia. If you want a 'Western' dog (any known breed from another Country), you will have to write a cheque for up to 10 000riyal (roughly 2 500 USD) and it needs a passport, a microchip, all the vaccinations and to be neutered/spayed. So a rather costly little bit of company.  Your other option is to go 'local' and get a street dog...Well...From the streets, as the name implies.  These all look the same: multi-coloured, slightly like a Whippet, slightly like a Border Collie, slightly like ...