Shamal of Doha

Ok so I have to admit; I have been here for nearly six months and had yet to travel outside of Doha city limits.  (I know, bad KP!!) This past weekend we decided to remedy that situation and take a mini-road/bike trip up to the Northern tip of Qatar.  First we started the day with a 70km (about 44 miles) cycle up to Al Khor and back (see the blue line on below map); another place I had never been.  It was a great ride and we saw a heard of about 30 camels grazing in the desert...um, well I actually missed seeing them on the way up to Al Khor because I was heavily engrossed in a political debate with a Brit who was on our bike ride. Oppsss.

After recovering from our morning ride, we grabbed some lunch and headed out on our journey up Al Shamal Road (see the red line).  Shamal is the Arabic word for "North" although prior to taking this little jaunt we thought it meant "Sandstorm" for some unknown reason, aka we thought we were taking a voyage up "Sandstorm Road".  Sounds way cooler, right?!

Now, I bet you are wondering, "KP, so what is Shamal (North) of Doha??!!"

Well, let me tell you!

A WHOLE LOT OF ABSOLUTELY, FLIPPING NOTHING.

SERIOUSLY.

We drove for almost 2 hours straight through endless stretches of desert with random spots of palm trees and shrubbery scattered about and finally reached the coast.  The tide was so far out that we could hardly see the ocean from the shoreline...all we could see was sandy muck and stranded wooden boats waiting for the tide to come back in. 

Oh yeah, we may have seen some goats:

And we may have also found a little park.  Which was extremely strange because it was seriously in the middle of nowhere.

We might of done a bit of recreational activity in said park...because we have the combined maturity of a 12 year old

We also may have found some ruins of an old deserted city:

and might have explored a fort from the 1800s...

And of course,  we just might have hung out with some camels on the way back:

Ok, so maybe there is not absolutely nothing North of Doha... but lets just say it is not very likely we will be making another trip up that way any time soon...cough*EVER*cough