The Rub al-Khali desert

Welcome back to LOJ blog! Today we begin our journey through the Middle East and my God, it is hot.

Alright, I'll admit it, we may kind of be in the Rub al-Khali desert. It seems entirely desert-ed (Ha, ha, that was a bad pun) which makes sense, seeing as Rub al-Khali actually means "Empty Quarter". If you look to the right, sand. If you look to the left, sand. And guess what you see if you look straight ahead? You guessed it, TREES! No, actually, you see sand.

Okay, that's kind of understandable if you realize that LOJ is standing right in the middle of the largest sand desert in the world. That means that there's not a lot of boulders, dirt, or even people. There's sand. And it's hot. Extremely hot.

When we parachuted in, (and DON'T listen to Olivia I DIDN'T scream! Well, maybe just a little, but not much at all, really!!!!!!!) I was annoyed by all the stupid guides that were telling us how hot it was! I mean, they said that the temperature was low there at night (When we parachuted in), but it was in the low 40s! We were all shivering and talking about fires and coats. We were told to pack for hot weather and we had scoffed at the suggestion to bring heavy blankets after we read the accounts of people that traveled through the desert. "It'll be too hot for them anyway," we said, "And it'll just be heavy."

We. Were. So. Wrong.

Trust me, if you're ever going to travel through the Empty Quarter, bring something warm for the night. It was rather cold when we got in, but in the morning...

We had slept under every heavy thing we could get and were in a small tent. Meaning, of course, when we woke up to 125 degree weather, we were all drenched in sweat.

That's what you get when you go to the Middle East. Why couldn't I have signed up for Antarctica where at least the temperature is stable???

If you want to learn more about the Rub al-Khali, go Here