Climbing Sand Castles

Today some of us took a little trip out to Muttlah Ridge. It's the only geographic feature in Kuwait. The only elevation change. It was interesting and now I can check that off and not really feel like I need to go back. It was fun just to get out of the city, out of my apartment for a little bit and go hike around-- even if it is still well over 100F. It was freaking HOT! We didn't stay long, but even in the short 45mins-1 hour that I spent out climbing around my water was hot! And then once you get back where it's cool you sweat like you've never sweated before.

Sadly, there was a lot of trash all over out there. LOTS of tires, but some of them looked like they use them for camels or something. We passed a few camels along the way going up there but I didn't get any pics. Much like how you will see cattle when you drive around in the US. You can find old bullets from the war out in the sand- so that's kinda cool.

On the way home we saw a BIG fire - we think it was at some oil place, or something. Not a refinery, but oil was definitely burning. We also stopped at a Mc Donald's which was interesting. It had this thatched looking roof inside.

By the McDonald's was the remnants of a sand castle contest/exhibition. A couple of people in the group had come and seen the sand castles when this contest/exhibition was on and they said it was really nice, with nice walk ways and lights and fire-- they do it every year. What we saw was run down and derelict, which was AWESOME! It allowed us to climb all over them and just play around. When do you get to climb sand castles? They were amazing. They were almost cement like, but not as sturdy. It was really cool. Total highlight of the trip.

Iraq is about 80km down that road

the ridge is in the background.. no idea what the wall is for

all the little black dots are tires

Levi carried a tire up to roll down

it was smart to park the van near this big tower so we could find our way back

a big oil fire