I can see where you could be in trouble if a good wind came up... there appears to be a little sand around you.

impressive, beautiful too

I didn't know camels came in any other color than ---well it's called camel.

Interesting video!

I was kind of surprised by the number of trees in the middle of all that sand.

Actually, the desert is no different to other areas in Africa for instance, when it comes to trees.

One can pass large areas where not a single tree is seen.

Others would have trees line up.

Others would have a single tree in the middle of no where.

I will find other videos and post them here.

Amazing area!

At about the two minute mark there a a bunch of tracks crossing the road at a right angle. Single line tracks. What makes them and what are they doing?

Only tracks are camels or cars.

We do have some gazelles, and I could see their tracks on the ground, but I don';t think you can from the video.

At 2:11 I see this some distinct lines in the sand crossing the road. The are wider than tire tracks from your vehicle. The are wider spaced and not really parallel. They do not appear to be optical artifacts.

Wind blowing boulders through the sand... Don't know but yes I saw them as well.

quote:

Originally posted by miles58:
At 2:11 I see this some distinct lines in the sand crossing the road. The are wider than tire tracks from your vehicle. The are wider spaced and not really parallel. They do not appear to be optical artifacts.

If you mean the ones where the camels are seen at fast speed, these are dirt roads.

In the other video on the sand dunes these are partially covered car tracks in the sand.

They appear to be some sort of vehicle tracks. The tracks seem to be about 1/2 the length of a camel, and do not seem to be made by a 4 wheeled vehicle. They look to be perhaps made by a very wide wheeled motorcycle of perhaps a 3 wheeled ATV of some sort.

They make me curious because there are so many of them so close together. A snowmobile here will make tracks that look like that, but I don't see it being likely that you would have snowmobiles there. Could they possibly be for someone having fun jumping some sort of vehicle and using the road as a ramp?

Many people go dune bashing in 4 wheelers, bikes and trucks.

We might go tomorrow, if we do I will post more videos.

Dune bashing

My daughter driving in the desert.

She is in the white car.

In the dune bashing video, both vehicles have a tall red flag. Of course this would be so you could see another vehicle approaching from the other side of a hill. Are the flags required or just common sense to have one?

The sand is obviously of different hardness in different places, and the drivers appear to be avoiding the soft spots. I presume that this is most often done in pairs and that both vehicles carry extended length tow straps so that walking home is minimized. Do the vehicles use wide tires to support them on the sand? It also looks like before overtopping a dune the drivers pause a little for a look-see. I suppose it takes a few times getting stuck to learn appropriate caution. Do they also have specialized vehicles to pull out the ones who get stuck really bad? How do they find the stuck vehicle when they return to get it out? From the looks of the dunes and the vegetation I would guess that the position of the dunes is at least semi permanent, is that correct?

All four wheel cars are supplied with this little pole and red flag.

They have a place on the vehicle where it fits, it is for visibility.

It is generally advisable for anyone going into the desert to have some equipment to help them get unstuck.

This particular area is not far from civilization!

It is actually 30 kilometers from my house, and takes about 30 minutes to drive there.

There are camel farms within walking distance so nothing to worry about really.

We normally carry a tow rope, plastic tracks that can be used under the tires, and an inflatable balloon to lift the vehicle up with the power from the exhaust.

We also carry a small compressor to fill up the tires before driving on tarmac roads.

Generally tires have around 35 psi.

For desert driving we reduce that to around 20 psi.

The kids want to try four wheeler desert bikes this week.

I will post more videos if they stay within my flying range.

That all is about what I'd expect. Here where we get extreme cold and can get as much as 3 feet of snow in a dump the people who wish to be able to survive the environment have to make similar concessions and preparations. Our snow drifts can get as high as your sand drifts, but they are less permanent. They can go from nothing to easily capable of burying a car in a matter of hours though.

Thank you!

You said there are camel farms within walking distance... What do you consider walking distance on a hot day in the sand? Here in the summer I could manage 20 miles in the summer, but I have lived where daily high temp was typically 105 F and that would make a huge difference. Unlike here in the winter, there isn't much you can do to dress for heat. Some of the drone video makes it look like it would be some miles to any kind of shelter. I am not sure I could make five miles in your kind of heat if I had to do it in the sand, much less climbing dunes.

A few weeks ago, I drove to this area to check if it was suitable to take the kids to.

It is relatively close - 30 kilometres - and almost on a straight road from my house.

I went in a BMW X5.

It is a four wheel drive, but sadly not suitable for sand driving.

It is too low, the tires are very low profile, and they are run flat type.

This means I cannot let some air out of them, and I don't have a spare either.

But, I managed to drive into the desert, being careful where to go.

Telling this to a friend, he said I must have been raving mad, going into the desert on my own, in a car that is not suitable.

I could have been stuck there.

I mentioned to him that there were camel farms close by, and a bit further on is a main road.

Where I went I was still within about 5 kilometres of camels farms, and probably less than 10 within the main road.

Walking does not bother me.

Yesterday I arranged for some desert bikes to be brought out there.

My daughter and some friends love to ride them in the desert.

They were brought on trailers, which had to stop short of the sand dunes.

This time I took our Toyota Landcruiser.

I drove up the sand dunes, and the kids got on their bikes and drove all around where I was.

We met one camel caravan, the Shepard was a Sudanese gentleman.

The camels he was with made a beeline to where I was parked.

We had a chat, and I gave him some cold drinks.

A bit later the kids came back, and I told them about the camels.

They took off after them.

I flew my drone over them.

The camels were not bothered by the bikes at all.

And the shepard was kind enough to let some of the kids ride his camel too.

A great day was had by everyone.

I will post photos and videos later on.

Saeed, Interesting! Thanks, Brian

Thank you Saeed!

Your friend who questioned your sanity reassures me my first instinct was close regarding the harshness of the terrain. 5 clicks even when hot by your temp standards would probably be doable for me if I didn't miss the line by much. I will wait for the videos/pictures.

I will post some winter pictures for you so that you can feel cooler when you get the Beemer stuck in the sand and have to walk out.

I have a friend who got himself a drone.

He is not mentally capable when it comes to anything to do with technology.

He lives on a farm further on, so we agreed to meet there for me to show him how to fly it.

I found that he had bought a strange Chinese drone which we could not turn even on.

He said he did try flying it a couple of years ago and he crashed it!!

I showed him how to fly mine - DJI MAVIC 2 ZOOM.

He fell in love with it, so I gave it to him.

On the way back home, another friend who was with me on the drive said "I am going to count the days until he calls you for assistance."

Sure enough, two days later he called and said he had LOST the drone!!?

One of the things I stressed upon him was that he should know exactly where he is at any given time. And if everything goes wrong, take a photo of the screen.

Well, he did take a photo of the screen.

So the next day I drove over to him, and we drove together to where he was flying the drone when he had lost it.

Looking at the screen photo of the map, we soon managed to find it.

Not much in the desert, and it was lying down on the side of a sand dune.

Perfectly fine, all I had to do was change the battery and off it took off.

I have selected a few photos and I will try posting them today after sending them to our server.

Got some great shots of some camels from above with their shadows.

The colors of the dunes are startlingly subtle and yet not at all consistent. Are the different colors of sand coming from different places? Is this a seasonal related thing? From the distance of the drone, the dust is only sometimes apparent. This must be an activity followed by a swim to get rid of it.

The rocks that show up in places make me wonder if under all that sand is bedrock?

What the hell do the camel on the camel farms eat? Obviously even native plants in that area are sparse.

That photography is spectacular. Thank You.

Sand color is differing different area, and sand moves quite a bit.

The camels are fed every day with alfalfa and dried grass.

Looks like you bought about 7 new 4 wheelers at the same time.

Other than guys in white sheets riding them, what use do camels have?

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
Other than guys in white sheets riding them, what use do camels have?

Beduins still use them for transport, milk, meat and their hair for making tents.

Close to towns they are bred for both milk and meat.

We also have a big camel racing business too.

And an annual CAMEL BEAUTY CONTEST!

How's the meat? Do they need to be pature/farm fed to be edible or can wild camels be good to eat?

Meat is great.

Both wild fed and farm fed camels taste great.

A friend's wife asked to get her some camel meat - my father used to keep camels, and we slaughter some for meat.

I got her some, and a recipe from my mother for a stew.

She invited me, along with a large group of friends, asking me not to say anything.

We had a great meal, and at desert they ladies were discussing the recipe my mother provided.

My friend's wife then said, "shall we tell them?"

She did.

And every single one there uttered their amazement that they would never have guessed it was anything but best beef.

Some of the gazelles we have in the desert.

I am surprised there are that many people that eat them in that part of the world. I would have thought cloven hoof and chew their cud would be mandatory.

What are the pros and cons of camel hair tents?

quote:

Meat is great.

Both wild fed and farm fed camels taste great.

They look to be awfully stringy and tough in the pictures you posted. Is the meat usually cooked to compensate for that? Is it cooked in soups ad stews and the like or is it also grilled like a steak?

quote:

Originally posted by miles58:

quote:

Meat is great.

Both wild fed and farm fed camels taste great.

They look to be awfully stringy and tough in the pictures you posted. Is the meat usually cooked to compensate for that? Is it cooked in soups ad stews and the like or is it also grilled like a steak?

Generally camel meat is cooked as stew, or a variation of that as the stew gets ready, rice is added and it cooks together like the Indian biryani.

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
What are the pros and cons of camel hair tents?

No idea.

I think the beduins used them because they had nothing else.