Camel Crossing

Camel Crossing!

When driving along the desert roads in Saudi Arabia, it is not uncommon to see herds of camels roaming the sands in search of food. They are usually let out to forage during the day, sometimes with a shepherd watching over them, but not always. In the evenings they will be brought back to their pens and given food and water, and to be kept safe through the night.

This shepherd is watching over a herd of about 25 camels, most of them just out of range for me to get in a single picture. He would just follow them around, this way and that. Riding that camel around looks like it might be a fun job for about the first half hour, but surely it would get boring after that. The weather was pretty nice that day as far as not being either too hot or too cold, but it was a little windy and the sand would have been irritating.


Camels are curious and will often come running to a car once you have stopped. If you let your window down, you can be assured that they will stick their head right in looking to see if you have any treats for them!


This little lady was terribly sweet to stop and strike such a pretty pose while I took her picture!

The Tower of Raghaba...

This is the Tower of Raghaba. It may not look like much at first glance, but upon closer inspection one realizes that it took a feat of engineering to build. Problem is, in the tiny village of Raghaba many years ago, no one was studying engineering! It is said that it was built with experience and intuition.

This is the view from the front. You can see the narrow doorway, and if you look closely you will see a stairway leading up on the right. The tower is not hollow. It has a narrow stairway leading all the way to the very top! Since you can see how narrow the entire tower is to begin with, and how it tapers upward, can you imagine how narrow that stairway gets near the top? Look at the small windows. They let a very tiny amount of light into the tower so that one can just see the steps as they climb.
The tower is very tall. I am not great at estimating height, but I am 5'4" and I did not have to duck to enter the doorway, so looking at how many sections there are, and the fact that the doorway is already quite a way up from ground level, I am "guestimating" 100' tall at least.

These are the steps leading up just to get to the doorway. Once at the doorway, I hesitated, but I was really excited to give it a try and see how high I could climb. I entered, I climbed about 30 steps, and to my dismay I started feeling dizzy and my heart was beating wildly.  I have never had a fear of heights, so I wondered if it was claustrophobia getting to me. I enjoyed the moment I spent inside, and then sadly turned and went back down the stairs.
About a week later, I was still having problems with dizzyness and heart palpitations. A visit to the Dr. and a quick blood test revealed that I was suffering from anemia, very low blood pressure, and hypoglycemia to boot! Aha! There was a medical reason I was feeling dizzy in the tower! Therfore, with proper nutrition and medication, I can build my strength up and give the tower of Raghaba another go!
Oh, Tower of Raghaba....... I will be back to visit you again!