Dahl al Misfir and the Singing Dunes

When you look across the desert in Qatar, some parts look like they have been strewn with light-coloured rubble. The rubble is limestone from the middle Eocene period and is 48 - 45 million years old. Depressions have formed over time in some places in the limestone areas. The most spectacular of these is a big cave called Dahl al Misfir (the Cave of Brightness) which is south-west of Doha.

Yesterday we set off in Priscilla to join the South African social group to a trip to Dahl al Misfir and then onto a place called the "Singing Dunes" for a braai (that's barbeque in Kiwi) and desert sunset. Our South African friend Sharlene von Berg came along too, as well as a friend of the boys', Alex. There were 31 4WDs in the convoy. Lots of families; and I listened to Afrikaans being spoken all around me all day. Ian had that wonderful feeling yesterday that you have when all of a sudden you are not a foreigner any more; you are amongst your own kind and you understand the language nuances and humour, and they understand you.

Note the Arabic grafitti! The first I have ever seen.

As we left the cave we drove past the camp of a camel herder over the desert to the Singing Dunes. If you look closely at the photo, you might be able to see the two baby camels that were being cared for in a little enclosure.

The Singing Dunes are really special. They are gigantic crescent-shaped barchan sand dunes of fine sand that have formed on the limestone desert. The "singing" is a low-pitched hum that happens when friction occurs from a thin layer of sand flowing down the leeward side of the sand dune. According to my trusty Qatar guidebook, the "Marhaba", there are very few areas in the world where the sand produces such a sound. Musical sand needs exactly the right abrasive qualities, together with rather precise wind and moisture conditions, which luckily for us is present very close to where we currently live.

We climbed all over the dunes, and the boys raced down them and also had a go at sandboarding.

You can hear a distorted version of the sand singing in this little video clip:

Ian and I made our way down the face of the dune rather more sedately and less elegantly. If you shuffle down on your bottom, you set the sand off and are surrounded by what I can only describe as a primordial humming; a humming that vibrates through your whole body and that echoes around the crescent of the dune. It is the oddest and most ancient sound, like the earth singing to you.

We had a barbeque of boerewors and chicken kebabs, potato salad and Greek salad, chocolate brownie and arabic sweets. As we drank some wine, the boys played on the dunes and explored the desert around us. As you can see, they had a wonderful time: