A Trip Through the Rub al-Khali

Hey it's Emily writing to you from the world's largest all-sand desert, the Rub al-Khali. Clare, Elise, and I decided to take a guided tour through just part of this vast desert (traveling through all 650,000 sq km of it would be just about impossible!) and I wanted to document our trip for you to read.

Before we could start the tour, we had to learn how to ride camels, just like the Bedouins. The Bedouins are a group of nomads who live in the Rub al-Khali. Learning to ride camels was harder than it looks. I've only ridden one at the zoo before! But once we got the hang of it and our guide, Amar, approved our newly-found skills, we were ready to start the trip.

On our tour we saw countless sand dunes, some reaching about the height of the Eiffel Tower (1,000 ft). I've never seen a sand castle that before! Amar told us to always follow him because we could easily get lost in such a vast land of sand. He knew exactly how to navigate through and around the dunes.

After a surprisingly short time, our group came to a large oil field and processing plant. There were pipelines and trucks and people everywhere. Amar told us that we could stop and rest if we chose, and we decided that that would be good for us and the camels. While there, we learned that Saudi Arabia produces 25% of the world's oil. That's about 264 BILLION barrels of crude oil a year! We also got to see how everyone works together to harvest the oil, though they get paid very little. After a little while, Amar said that we should get back on the camels and journey a little further into the desert before turning back.

There weren't many plants or animals in this desert because of the lack of water, but we saw some cacti and small rodents. Amar showed us how to break open a part of the cacti to get to the water it stored inside. He also showed us where to find dew that collected in the morning and how to dig under the sand to find water for the camels and for our water pouches. I was surprised that anything could live in a place where water was so hard to find. Not only that, but the sun was scorching and the ground was incredibly hot. Amar said that temperatures can reach about 131 degrees Farenheit at noon in the summer (you could definatly fry an egg in those temperatures!), but can drop to comfortable or even chilly temperatures at night. He also said that most of the animals that live in the Rub al-Khali were sleeping underground at this time of day so they could come out at night when it was cooler.

Well it's time for me to go get ready for our next adventure. Thanks for visiting our blog, and we will keep you posted on our journey through the Middle East!