Last weekend we were invited by some friends to go to the desert to dig sand roses. It is a pretty popular thing to do but you have to know where to go to dig so we were excited to have someone show us. It was interesting that just driving for a few minutes we were out of the city and into some really desert countryside. We were all so excited on our drive when we started to pass hundreds of camels roaming around. We were even more excited when the camels walked right by the place where we were digging. The camel farmers were so friendly and brought their camels over to let us all take pictures with them. The camels were quite gentle and unafraid of us so we got lots of pictures and opportunities to interact with them. They are VERY stinky animals though and were very dirty so I tried to keep the kids from touching them too much.
Allen and Carter even had the chance to ride a camel. By the time Allen had his ride the camel was pretty much done schlepping people around and would no kneel down for any more riders after that.
After playing with the camels Allen started to dig our hole for sand roses. To find the roses you have to dig down to the water level and then you begin to find them. Sand roses are unique to this area and for some reason the sand crystallizes and makes these beautiful flowers.
Kiddos and friends in our hole:
This is just a small sampling of the roses we dug up. We let each of the kids choose one to bring home and now they are in our front flower beds. The roses are quite heavy and sharp but truly beautiful.
It was a fun and hot morning in the desert and we're excited to go out again soon!
8 comments:
Wow! Just wow. I'm loving all the pictures and stories of your new adventure in Saudi. Too cool.
Wow, those are so beautiful....just made from sand? Wow.
What a fun experience! We have something similar in Oklahoma; our state rock is the Rose Rock, which looks much like your sand roses--except ours are made with red dirt! Plus, we don't get to ride camels when we're searching for them. So glad you're having such great times out there!
The camels were awesome! What a fun outing!
I remember roses like that when my family lived in Oklahoma. The legend was that they were formed by the tears of the indians as they were forced to leave their homes. But I never knew how to find them... that looks like so much fun!
Can you e-mail me your mailing address?
Thanks!
Erin
Every time I see your family with elephants and camels I'm amazed at where you are and the turn your life took! When you named your blog "always an adventure" you had no idea what that might mean! Love you. Mom frost
Ps I never heard of sand roses but Ami and Inkblogger knew of them in Oklahoma! Maybe I'll get over there to see them and go on an adventure with you! Mom f
So great to see your adventures. Love you! Can't wait to have some adventures with you in April.
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