Digging for Sand Roses

A few weeks ago, we got to go dig for sand roses, which is a really unique thing that you can do here in Saudi Arabia.  I was so glad we got to go!  Mike has a colleague who knows where to go to dig, and he very graciously led our family and one other family out into the desert and showed us what to do.  It was just a morning, but we had a great time and came home with lots of little souveniers. 

Here is what we were digging for:

This is a sand rose.  It is made of crystallized minerals that form at the interface of ground water and sand, underground.  If the water table is not very far underground, it's not that hard to dig down to it and find these sand roses.  Some are big (size of a piano bench) and some are small (size of your fist).  They are often found in the sabkhas (/sub-kuhs/) (flat, salty land) near where we live because the conditions are right to form them there.

We drove out about 45 minutes from camp. 

 We started on the highway, just out in the desert.

We always see these trucks on this highway.  (???)  Sounds dangerous.  I mean, doesn't sulfur have to be hot to be molten?  I know sulfur at room temperature is a yellow solid.  It's brimstone, as in "fire and brimstone."  Why would you melt it and put it in a truck?  And on THESE most dangerous highways?  Yay, Saudis. 

Then we turned off at the Junkyard/Cattle Market exit, 

went past the charcoal souks (markets), 

past a camel farm, 

 and turned off the paved road, into the desert.  This is analogous to turning off the paved road in the South. 

Driving in the sand was fun!  Just don't get stuck.  (We don't have four wheel drive.)

Past another bedouin site, this one with an albino camel.  

And then we parked our car and got out, 

 and just started to dig in the desert.  This was a nice sabkha that Mike's colleague had been to before. 

 Everett spotted camel tracks!

 The men were digging and the boys were playing.  This country is just one big giant sand box.  We brought all the sand toys with us. 

 Our spot in the big empty desert. 

While we were digging, some friendly camels happened by.   We drove over to where they were on top of a nearby dune.   

They were very tame and let us pet them.  They probably belong to somebody, but they are just allowed to roam the desert.  

Then two camels got together.  And here we are in the middle!

Lawrence loved petting the camel's knees.

I was holding Lawrence up to pet the camel when the second camel got really close to me and trapped me in between them.  I just knew I was going to be squished (death by camel) or spit on (more likely!).  But I just backed away slowly and it was ok.  They were big and stinky and intimidating, but it was fun anyway.  

So anyway, back to digging!   About four feet down, (amazingly!) the guys hit WATER.  WOW!  In the desert!  The interface between the sand and the water is where you find sand roses. 

 When you dig them up, you have to wash them off in water (which we brought) to see what you've got. 

People that have come to this spot before have thrown their unwanted sand roses on the desert floor.  They were all around. 

We came back with that green bin about half full of sand roses, most about the size of one or two fists.  We put them in the three empty planters in our front courtyard.  They look great!  Now that we know where to go, we hope to go back again to get some even bigger ones.