Birthday In The Desert

I think I mentioned in my last post about the desert (Tell Me There Is Nothing In The Desert Again) that I would probably not be going there again any time soon because of the rising temperature making it unbearable to spend time in the desert. It turns out that there are ways to work around the issue of heat: get up really early!

It was a friend of mine's birthday on 9 May and to celebrate we went for a very early desert trip along with her husband and two other friends. We left from my place at 3:45 am (yawn!) and made it into the desert for the 5 am sunrise. As the desert gets cool at night it was still a bit chilly to wear a t-shirt. The sunrise and the fresh air was so worth the early rise:


(5 am and the first signs of sunlight on the sky over the Kuwaiti desert)


(Shortly after 5 am and the sun rising quickly)


(Shortly after 5 am and the sun rising quickly)

With the sun comes the temperature as well but we still had time to have a look around the desert (right after sunrise it was probably high 20s Celsius/80+ F).

A definite highlight of this particular trip was the lizards! I have no idea where these creatures have been hiding the last times we were there or if they somehow migrate into Kuwait in the summer but now they are here!

Although the lizards themselves are quite big (I'd say about 0.5 meter long/2 feet) they can be hard to spot. From a distance they look like a stick in the sand - like this one:


(A lizard sticking its head out of its hole - middle of the picture - look for the small black 'stick' pointing upwards (not the black thing lying on the ground to the right))

It can be quite difficult to get close to them - when they feel movement on the ground they immediately escape into their holes. They are said to be a delicacy so no wonder they are quick to escape to avoid being eaten by campers.

At one point we were really lucky to drive up on one who for some reason did not get scared from the movement of our car. We stopped and took some pictures through the window - it was so close that I could see it swallow (that was the only movement visible):


(Lizard in its hole - Kuwaiti desert)

There was a Kuwaiti with us on this trip and he told us that this type of lizard uses its tail (which looks like a club with spikes) to hit/to fight with. I can imagine that must hurt!

On our way back (in time for breakfast) we almost hit a lizard that was sitting in the middle of the road - I imagine the tarmac was nice and warm. It gave us the "I-was-here-first-look" (good point) and we tried to "push" it off the road (without hitting it of course). It finally ran off the road and into a drain by the road side:


(Lizard running off the highway)


(Lizard by the highway)

This time of year the desert should be dry and with minimal vegetation. The recent rain (Adding 'Sarayat' to My Arabic Vocabulary), however, meant that a lot of things were growing and that flowers had again started blossoming. I even saw some new ones that I had never seen before:


(Small white flowers blossoming)


(A plant with star-shaped green flowers/leaves I had never seen before)


(A purple root-like plant I had also never seen before)


(White flowers blossoming - again)


(An unusual sight - a light green plant in the summer desert)

We went down by the water near Bubiyan Island where we have been before (it's where the mudskippers live Day Out In The Desert) and found that this area was also surprisingly green:

(Grass-like vegetation in the desert casting long morning shadows)


(Grass-like vegetation in the desert casting long morning shadows - and the sand cracking in flakes because it's dry)


(A green plant with yellow banana-shaped 'fruits')

I like being by the water - there is a big difference between high and low tide which means that it can be a completely dry area (as it was on this trip) with ripples in the sand and at other times it's mudflats with mud-skippers like the first time I was there (Day Out In The Desert).


(By the water with Bubiyan bridge in the background - the tide coming in quickly)

The water is salty (it's the mouth of the Arabic Gulf - or Persian Gulf as it is called elsewhere) and leaves white marks on the ripples of sand when the water retracts:


(Salty patterns in the sand at low tide)


(Patterns in the sand)


(A fish out of water - literally)


(A sand colored bug)


(A beautifully white crab shell)


(Dry sand cracking up - with traces of salt from the high tide)

It was also a really good morning for some bird spotting although most of them were impossible to photograph (we saw a sandpiper as well). I have no idea what most of them are - but I see species that I have never seen before:


(Bird in the sand)


(Brown, black and white bird sitting on a bush)

I was told this is a green bee-eater although they are not supposed to live in Kuwait. Actually the Kuwaiti gentleman told me that during the Iraqi invasion a lot of the Kuwaitis who fled their homes set their (pet) birds free because they could not bring them with them. That's apparently why species that shouldn't really be here are now living in the area as wild birds:


(Green bee-eater (?) now in Kuwait)

And last but not least - another thing I had never seen in the desert - a type of desert mushroom:


(Desert mushroom)

We left the desert around 7:15 am when it was getting really warm and we went for breakfast back in Kuwait City. Definitely not a bad way to spend a birthday morning - and a great justification for taking a midday nap :)

Tell Me There Is Nothing In The Desert Again

Unfortunately there is a tendency among many of the foreigners who live in Kuwait to complain about how there is 'nothing to do in Kuwait'. While it is less developed in some aspects of 'entertainment' compared to many US or European cities it is certainly not true that there is nothing here to do. Usually, those same people who complain are the ones who then look all surprised when you tell them about a wonderful museum you went to or activities you took part in. Somehow it's a vicious cycle I guess - foreigners complain to newly arrived foreigners who then don't make the effort to look for - sometimes well-hidden - places of interest and things to do - and then there is consensus and we can all reassure each other of our belief. Sad, really.

Okay, so you can not go out drinking, or hang out in a bar for after-hours beers, you cannot go to discotheques and night clubs because there aren't any (at least not officially) and it's hard to find concerts, theater plays and the like. But that doesn't mean there aren't other things to do.

It's a bit the same with the desert - 'it's flat, boring and there's nothing worth seeing there'. A lot of people don't even go because they heard that 'it's flat, boring and there's nothing worth seeing there'. Others go and drive right through it in their air-conditioned cars and confirm that 'it was flat, boring and there was nothing to see'. That's just not true. I'm not saying we should all enjoy walking around in the desert looking for bugs and plants (nor do I expect that you all find it interesting to see my pictures from there) - I admit it is a bit nerdy but just don't tell me that there is nothing in the desert!

The pics are from 2nd March and we went to the same place as last time - my previous post is here: Day Out In The Desert.


(A wonderful sunny morning in the desert near Bubiyan Island)

It was extremely windy and probably not the best day to climb a sand hill - but we did anyway:


(My friends looking over the desert and trying not to get blown off the hill)

Down by the water there were still the funny mudskippers we saw last time and there were also some crabs who escaped as soon as we came near. I did get some pictures of the slower-moving creatures there, though:


(Moving around the mud flats)


(Hermit legs sticking out)


(Hello neighbor!)

There were still some flowers in the desert although it was clear that in the 3 weeks or so that had passed since we were last there, the desert has dried out a lot.


(Flowers in the desert)


(Flowers in the desert)


(Flower in the desert)

There were also still some desert hyacinths out there:


(Desert hyacinths)

It never ceases to amaze me how these flowers break through the hard and dry surface of the desert:


(Desert hyacinth breaking through)

The hyacinths aren't the only ones having to break through the sometimes really dry and hard surface of the desert:


(Small plant coming up through the dry flakes of the desert)


(Green plant coming up through the dry flakes of the desert)


(Plant casting its shade in the desert sand)


(Plants, flowers and some dry roots)

There were tons of butterflies everywhere that day:


(Butterfly sitting on some flowers in the desert)

And I managed to get some pretty nice photos of some of them:


(Butterfly on a desert flower)


(This one had wings so thin they were almost transparent)


(Getting ready for landing!)


(Butterfly on a desert flower)

There were plenty of other little bugs and insects - although I have no idea what most of them are (there were birds as well but they were hiding in the grass and flew away so fast that we couldn't take any pictures):


(Small flies inside a desert hyacinth)


(A beautiful shiny bug - copper-colored with black)


(Big ant)


(Another colorful bug - quite flat and with stripes)


(A fast-running bug - black with sand-colored back part that blends in with the desert)


(No idea about this one either - about the size of a big ant)

I finally got a good shot of a ladybug as well:


(Ladybug on a hairy desert plant)

We made a stop near the only tree visible in this part of the desert - unfortunately it is dead but at least it's still standing there:


(Not A but THE tree in the desert)

Nearby somebody must have had a barbecue or some other feast involving a small lamb or goat - all the bones are scattered around the area:


(Leftovers... been in the desert so long grass is growing out of its eye-holes)

Am I the only one who sees a person (two black dots for eyes) with his hands folded in front of him (fingers pointing forward)?


(Bone left in the desert)

With plenty of butterflies comes of course plenty of caterpillars (well, other way round):


(This one had crawled onto a small plant that it was feasting on)


(You can actually see its spiky 'teeth' used for eating)


(Didn't know these things have actual eyes!)

This time the desert was full of grass - it was very nice:


(Grass swaying in the wind - and a Kuwaiti flag from a nearby campsite)


(Grass swaying in the wind - a rare sight in the desert)

A little bit further along, close to where they are currently constructing a new road we made another stop and saw this funny caterpillar - if that's not the cutest thing...:


(Caterpillar of some kind - looks more like a caricature of a dachshund (gravhund))

At first I thought it was a joke or something left behind by campers but this really is melons growing in the desert (in between a table tennis ball and a tennis ball in size). My friend had taken home some seeds and planted them but so far I have heard no news of a desert melon plant at her house:


(Desert melons)

And last but not least a hazy view of the Kuwait City skyline before we went home:


(Kuwait City skyline and greenery)