Liwa Camping Weekend - Jan 21-23, 2010

We headed out the Thursday night because we thought that it would cut down on the driving on Friday and then we could have more time in Liwa.  It went well, we finally figured out that even though there are fences and gates that they are just for the camels not for anyone else.  So basically we can camp anywhere as long it isn't someones front lawn.  We got to a spot that we figured we wouldn't get stuck (we were on our own) and set up camp.  Wayne tried pumping up the air matress but it was taking a long time so he figured he had a lot more air to give than the pump.  We had a wonderful evening.  The kids and I scouted for wood for our fire while Wayne got supper ready.

The next morning we got up and moving.  Everything was packed, everyone was in the truck and ready to go.  Wouldn't you know it we got stuck!!!  Talk about a not very nice morning.  Everything came out again.  Tried again and ended up burying it a bit deeper. :(  So out came the shovel and I started to clear the wheels and under carriage.  We were both moving the sand when we saw this herd of camels coming our way.  It was really cool.  I wanted to take some pics BUT Wayne thought it would be better to keep digging. :)  As it turns out there was a wonderfully nice man, his daughter and grandson herding those camels.  They pulled over and through various hand motions we figured out that he would help us.  YAHOO - no more digging!

Once out we were on our way.  We had passed a gas station last night so we headed back there to fill our tires.  It turns out it was not a gas station any longer - so no air.  We tried to use our pump but figured out the hard way (tire went completly flat) that it was no longer working -that was why Wayne had to blow up the matress. :)  Again not a very good start to the morning.  We walked over to the car museum figuring they would have an air pump that we could borrow - yes they did but it cost us 50 dirhams. :)  What do you do when in the middle of absoluetly no where with a totally flat tire but pay the man.

So once again we are on our way to Liwa - there went our nice early start.  It was a beautiful drive and we manged to do a few geocaches along the way.  Once there we found an awesome camp site, at the base of this huge dune.  The kids must have climbed this thing about 8 times.  Wayne and I - ONCE was enough thank you!  It was cool coming down because we you jumped and landed it made this tooting noise.  The kids thought it was absolutely hilarous.

The first picture is of Wayne and the kids on their way up.  The one on the right is of them at the top.  The one below is from across the road facing the one we climbed to the top ( or so we thought).  That dune goes on for a long ways and gets higher!

Finally another sunset shot in the desert.  What a view!