In the month of April 2013, I was relocated to Doha, Qatar for an official trip. Pretty new to the digital photography at that point of time. Work pressure was pretty high but still manage to plan a desert safari trip with an office colleague who was also relocated to Doha, Qatar for few weeks along with me.
Let me start with the weather of Doha at that time. Well it’s was hot, really hot and dry. But I must say it was not a big issue as all the places in Doha are fully equipped with the air con. The temperature is touching 40+ Celsius with hot and dry sandy wind all day. We started from Doha around 1pm in the afternoon. The land cruiser came to our hotel at the exact time to pick us up and the journey to the desert has been kicked off.
The road to the desert was amazing, the driver keep the speed around 170km/hour constantly. The view was pretty amazing with photo perfect sand dune at the both side of the road.
It took around 1.5 hours to reach and after few minutes of rest the actual safari started. Driver took his time to deflate the tires of the land cruiser and the long awaited thrilling adventure has been kicked off. We are tumbling over the sand dunes one after one. It’s like we are falling down from sand dunes inside the car. It was a thrilling and beautiful experience. The unequaled view of the desert and, if you listen closely, you can even hear the sands shift as you descend down the slopes.
After doing safari for couple of hours we were brought to the Inland sea, where the sea and the desert connected. It’s a shallow sea that covers central areas of the desert during periods of high sea level. When we get down of the car to see this one of the most rare and amazing creation of nature there was a mild sand storm going on. The moment was unforgettable and so was the mother nature.
I carried my 40mm 2.8 prime to capture the moments. Though sadly I lost so many photographs as my hard drive crashed. Did not take the backup and lesson learned. Still was able to recover few photos from using a well known recovery software.
Around 4.30 pm in the afternoon we reach at the desert camp at the Persian Gulf. Surprisingly they have air con in the camp. We had early dinner with lamb, BBQ chicken, plain rice, fruits etc. We enjoyed the evening view of the Persian Gulf with delicious dinner, chilled soft drinks and some Hookah (aka Waterpipe). We did not stay overnight, so we took the car back to Doha around 8.30pm in the evening.
I wish I had an wide angle lens to capture the dunes. I did not even carry the 18-55. But not everything in your life you can capture using your digital lens, sometime the natural lens is good enough to store the moments in your hypothalamus.
Enjoy the photos.
avirupchatterjee 