Leisure - William Henry Davies
WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight
Stream full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
That is the spirit from which I live in Qatar now. (By the way, the piece was shared in the school, as part of DEAR - Drop Everything And Read - in connection with World Book Day celebrations)
Qatar Peninsula offers plenty of camping spot, with almost 90% of its boundaries having the Arabian sea and the terrain offers any number of sites for exploring - being with the nature, enjoying the air, watching the sky, do some cooking or in the cool of the evening or night to have a barbeque set and have a good time with your family or friends, rest for a few hours in the lap of gaia and wake up to see the sun risijng in joyous red, and in time rising to its glorious power, indicating to all the relaxing campers that it was time to go.
This time we tried to discover the Rocky Fuwairit beach - this is on the east of Qatar to its North, just about 20 kilometres away from the northern tip of Al Ruwais. About 100 kilometres from Doha-Jadeida, you exit the speedway which took you there in just 1 hour. You turn to Madinat Al Shamal - Al Gharya Rd road and after 2 kilometres touch a stretch off-road, and rock formation rising to some 50 to 60 feet appear, with some unique abundance of desert vegetation around. You stop, park your vehicle, and climb up the rocky terrain, and reaching the top, you are greeted by the salt smelling cool air of the night, the calm and shallow waters of the Persian Gulf and a starry sky. Though the stretch of sealine appears crowded for the place and the time, each group is having their own private space with no one else to bother. Some are cooking, some barbequing, some singing, some listening to music, some dancing and some making an effort to fish! Unthinkable freedom and safety!
The water is shallow, the bottom strewn with stones; some venture out to look for crabs or some shell-fish.
The summer is begun, but it is still comfortably cool at night.
The rocky terrain gives a unique feel and view and excellent atmosphere for camping. We have brought our stuff, but make use of the coal fire for baking some sweet potatoes. These Kenyan sweet potatoes, apparently don't get baked to give that typical taste - they still gives the feel of being watery.
The morning sun is a charming sight. A walk along the beach or on the rocky terrain is energizing. The rolled and shaped patch of stones - small and big - appeared a unique feature of this beach. the rock formation is interesting to observe, with several distinguishable layers of sedimentation and metamorphosis. Worth a lesson in school Geography.
The surroundings manifest the unique vegetation which are very colourful and showing desert features for the storage of water. I can't identify any of them, but am really fascinated by them. It could be a heaven for the interested botanist.
There is also good birding, more of bush type, and 2 or three of them having crests. Again, I am unable to identify any of them. I spot an attractively coloured chameleon.
We move back, and decide to stop over at the largest archeological site of Qatar Al Zubarah, a UNESCO heritage site. It is some good 40 kms ride from the highway - but it takes just about 30 minutes. It is brightly sunny by now, but still not very hot. The greatest attraction is the fort which is definitely renovated - but some effort to maintain the style has been made. It is a museum with useful bit of information regarding the human settlements of the area, its growth, its culture and traditions. Again, it is amazing to note the growth of this small nation from a rustic tribal land relying almost entirely on the renewable resources of fish and pearl, and perhaps some very basic animal husbandry into a modern, opulent nation, where the citizens feel themselves as a class apart, and having very little to do with the traditional occupations or related natural resources. There are still digging and studies going on.
A kilometre from the fort there is a heritage village - Ain Muhammed - still in the making under Qatar museum. But there are facilities for overnight stay and clean toilets, and a dining area with provisions for food.
Another kilometre away from the heritage village, towards the Zekreet beach side, is a very unique art installation of 20 giant circular mirrors placed on the huge scircular steel frames, giving an aerial vision of tables set. The top is white, but below almost 15 ft from the ground you see reflecting mirrors. The art is meant to reflect the viewer and the earth on which she stands! Two sets of crossed steel circles and 3 single circles complete the frame set against the desert in an enclosed campus of about 10 acres with hardly any vegetatation besides the typical desert grass. The visitor is required to walk almost a thousand steps to reach the installation, which could be bit demanding in the sun. So the perfect timing could be early moring or evening around sun set. That timing is said to have other effects on the shadow as well. However, the air was cool, and the breeze continuous once we reached under the shade of the mirrors. The artist is Olafur Eliasson and it is named: The Shadows Travelling on the Sea of the Day. Wonder and admire those who have been willing to sponsor the modern architectural art.
There is no any entry fee for any of these features at Zubarah.
Another two kilometres of bumpy ride off-road, and you get to see the Zekreet beach. A large section is enclosed with no acccess to the public, but there is still sufficient area open to the public. There are some boats visible. But with the stone-strewn bottom, it is not inviting to enter the waters, though the the desolate area in itself is pleasing to the eyes.
Both in the camping area and on the sea coast, the omnipresent plastic waste makes its mark. The humans are incorrigible. The self-conscious homo-erectus/a apparently is quite unaware when it comes to the casual way in which s/he treats the base of one's existence, and the immense harm being done to oneself and future generations of all species! May God of the planet save us! (I am not happy that we also have generated plastic waste - the trip is not fully under my control. However, my young companions have ensured that no bit of waste is littered around, packing away everything to dump in appropriate place).
Thank you Father for the write up. Fuwairit holds a special place in our hearts as it was one of the places we discovered on one of our excursions a couple of decades ago. Since then we've taken many others there. After a long gap, we happened to visit the place thrice recently - twice with family who were visiting, and once just ourselves- on a Friday morning when we decided to drop everything and simply venture into nature. And we learned again - nature never disappoints.
ReplyDeleteglad for the validation of my experience!
DeleteGood read. We had visited Zubairah fort many years back. There's an archaeological site nearby which has ruins of an 18th century town. Btw, liked the comment 'unthinkable freedom and security'! Wish we could move around with such abandon in our country!😃
ReplyDelete