Geocaching Photos - Saudi Arabia

[+Desert Warrior]

Have you seen the photos of geocaching in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps more extreme than the average.

 

They are at:

 

Geocaching photos - Saudi Arabia

Edited May 26, 2005 by Desert Warrior

[+DaveA]

Have you seen the photos of geocaching in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps more extreme than the average.

 

They are at:

 

Geocaching photos - Saudi Arabia

not many caches hidden under a bush or in a rotted out tree there, huh?

Edited May 26, 2005 by DaveA

[+Desert Warrior]

We have three but one is worthy of mention a bush two hours drive over nothing but sand and there is it. How it survives noone knows it needs water and avoid being cut down for firewood. One thing is certain it must be one of the few caches which you can be certain you have found several miles away. Edited May 27, 2005 by Desert Warrior

[+DaveA]

We have three but one is worthy of mention a bush two hours drive over nothing but sand and there is it. How it survives noone knows it needs water and avoid being cut down for firewood. One thing is certain it must be one of the few caches which you can be certain you have found several miles away.

I spent some time in Saudi during my Gulf War 1 days. Some very good and very bad memories from that time. The one thing I cannot imagine is geocaching there.

 

I remember visiting the 'highway of death' and seeing the chemical mines (that officially were not used) that the winds had unearthed. In that flat, featureless landscape not even burying a cache would conceal it very long.

 

Kudos to those of you over there who are making the sport/hobby of geocaching happen.

 

If only I had a GPS to record the coordinates of the tons of MREs and bottled water we buried as we dismantled one makeshift base after another those would make for some really cool hunts. I don't think the prohibition on digging to place or find caches should apply to areas like Saudi that are 100% sand that the winds constantly relandscape.

[+9Key]

Looks like west Texas to me!

 

This image looks Photoshop'ed: http://tinyurl.com/bw4ct

[+Tidalflame]

Ack! Popups! Firefox no longer blocks them... I think it's due to some extension I downloaded... I need to fix that.

 

Nice photos.

[+Desert Warrior]

I spent some time in Saudi during my Gulf War 1 days. Some very good and very bad memories from that time. The one thing I cannot imagine is geocaching there.

 

I remember visiting the 'highway of death' and seeing the chemical mines (that officially were not used) that the winds had unearthed. In that flat, featureless landscape not even burying a cache would conceal it very long.

 

I was there as well and ended up immediately at the top of the highway for about six weeks waiting to go home.

 

Geocaching in Saudi is awesome. There are few places with the variety of terrain that we have and most is accessible not hidden behind fences nor, strangely enough, do we have people asking what we are up to.

 

The comment following yours suggested the photo had been photoshopped but those here will know that it is unlikely. The picture was taken on the Escarpment SE of Riyadh.

 

I am interested in the string about the proposed legislation in SC. Here the authorities have clicked on to geocaching as a way of getting people around the Kingdom to see what there is and are encoraging it including a propsed TV programme.

!

[+DaveA]

Geocaching in Saudi is awesome. There are few places with the variety of terrain that we have and most is accessible not hidden behind fences nor, strangely enough, do we have people asking what we are up to.

 

I can certainly understand nobody asking what you are up to given the vast areas of uninhabited land, but what do you mean by the variety of terrain? It is mostly flat sandy areas. Yes there are exceptions, but I recall trying to do terrain association using topo maps in Saudi and it was difficult given that most maps were just white sheets of paper with no markings. It was while in Saudi that I had my first exposure to GPS units. We needed them as there was no other way to differentiate one plot of land from another. It was all one fly infested, dung beetle swarming plot of sand after another.

 

The comment following yours suggested the photo had been photoshopped but those here will know that it is unlikely. The picture was taken on the Escarpment SE of Riyadh.

 

I have been to Riyadh, but don't recall any such scenery. That doesn't mean much though. While in the Marines we had a saying "The Marines takes us to some of the most beautiful places on earth and stations us in the ugliest parts of them."

 

I went to Hawaii for a training excercise and several of my platoonmates got hypothermia and had to be medivacted. How on earth can one get hypothermia in Hawaii you might ask? Well, by being stationed in the high valley between the twin peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa which is above 10,000 ft of sea level, that's how. By day it is 80F and at night it snows.

 

I am interested in the string about the proposed legislation in SC. Here the authorities have clicked on to geocaching as a way of getting people around the Kingdom to see what there is and are encoraging it including a propsed TV programme.

 

I can understand that. Saudi isn't real high on the list of tourist hot spots for westerners with money so anything they can do to increase attention is a good thing. When all your real estate is flat sand land you have to do what you have to do

!

[+Desert Warrior]

When all your real estate is flat sand land you have to do what you have to do

 

A tad unfair. The Riyadh Escarpment about 1000ft prevents Riyadh developing that way and expains the progress northwards. Abha a shade under 10000ft is only 75kms from the coast. West of the Taif Escarpment is very recent volcanic acticity and yes Saudi still has one active volcano and is on the edge of a plate. SE we have the most marvellous sand dunes found anywhere (some of which are nealry 1000ft themselves). To the North we have an area of limestone with facinating caves. Agreed on the Iraq border it is flat but who wants to be there. Oh and our geocaching community includes the US military with a senior rank partcipating (secuity prevents me saying more) and a marine or two. That said I love to geocache in the US it is so relatively easy to make finds

[+DaveA]

When all your real estate is flat sand land you have to do what you have to do

 

A tad unfair. The Riyadh Escarpment about 1000ft prevents Riyadh developing that way and expains the progress northwards. Abha a shade under 10000ft is only 75kms from the coast. West of the Taif Escarpment is very recent volcanic acticity and yes Saudi still has one active volcano and is on the edge of a plate. SE we have the most marvellous sand dunes found anywhere (some of which are nealry 1000ft themselves). To the North we have an area of limestone with facinating caves. Agreed on the Iraq border it is flat but who wants to be there. Oh and our geocaching community includes the US military with a senior rank partcipating (secuity prevents me saying more) and a marine or two. That said I love to geocache in the US it is so relatively easy to make finds

Well that is the great thing about caching isn't it? I mean you can live in an area your whole life and not see the wonders that you might see if you cached.

 

I spent a year in Saudi and visited Riyadh and knew absolutely nothing about the diverse landscape Saudi holds for those who explore it.

 

My impression of the middle east from having been there was that it was a flat, featureless sand wasteland with little more than camel poop and organisms that fed upon it.

 

It took a cacher such as yourself who is there and has cached there to inform me otherwise.

 

I will never find a cache in Saudi due to my not living there or having reason to return there, but the fact that you, a fellow cacher are there and have cached there have posted about it has educated me beyond what spending a year there myself taught me. Go figure and thank you for posting.

[+Desert Warrior]

... and all from a few photographs. Go out and bag those geocaches. And when you are next in Riyadh, bag a few more.

[+terri and billy]

Looks like west Texas to me!

 

This image looks Photoshop'ed: http://tinyurl.com/bw4ct

When we got off the plane at Dallas/Ft Worth, we ran to the window to see the US. This is after spending 8 months on the Iraq border. We looked at each other and said this looks like Kuwait City airport. Are you sure we're in the states? We did eventually get to another part of the airport where we could see green grass and trees. So, I guess depends on where you're looking as to what you see.

 

Terri

[+Alan2]

As an amature photographer, I learned that "magic hour", the one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset are the best times for photos - an for enjoying the scenery. What looks "flat" boring and uninteresting at noon, takes on a flare during magic hour.

 

The pcitures on that site are really beautiful. But two of the same spot shows just the difference in not only photos but a perception one can have of a place.

 

Same "mountain but different feeling for the place!

 

 

[M&Ms]

Thanks for the comments. Yes they are of the same place. Taking scenery in Saudi is difficult, the magic just does not seem to transfer well to pixels. The problem with the magic hour is to be out of the desert and on blacktop before dark. The picture with the geocacher was taken as a diversion to take the opportunity of visibility being the best we had seen it in three years. It is a marvellous place for scenery.