This morning we went on a desert drive in the Liwa area which is south of Abu Dhabi near the Saudi border. This place sits at the beginning of the Empty Quarter and some 700,000 sq kilometres of desert...I can't even think that big.
What a can think about is raw beauty. Pristine. Soul lifting. As we careened up and over dunes and across sabkhas (salt flats) we were the only intrusion on the landscape. So many times I have been in the desert and seen human detritus marring it's beauty, but at least here man leaves nothing but a few tire tracks...
There are three types of sand in this part of the desert...white from sea shells, red from iron oxide and black from carbon, Each one shading the dunes as if an artist had spent hours highlighting the undulations. As we stood and watched the wind spun the sands creating new patterns...in the distance the sand look smooth but up close the sand separated into waving lines and ridges....underneath a sand stone of sorts that crumbles in your fingers yet carries the weight of dunnes as high as 300 or 400 metres.......
3 comments:
Oh gosh, it's beautiful. I would so love to see sand like that. Love love love. Thanks Liz.
Hi Liz. I'm drawn in every time. Beautiful photos. One day, I think you'll find the piece of me I left behind.
Your posts and tweets transport me to a place and time I hold dear; a brief, but wonderful part of my life. And sometimes, I need to be reminded.
Thank you.
Laura x
Jenny - you must visit some time!
Laura - it's so lovely that these and other photos bring back good memories...
lx
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