Out and about

November 08, 2019

Out and about

Generally speaking, our life here in Q8 has been work, eat, sleep...Not to give the impression that we work all the time(Brigitte nearly does), but more along the lines of not having done a lot outside of working, shopping for food/clothes and resting at home.

To the Hills
Last weekend, we got a chance to join a group that was going to explore the "highlands" of Kuwait. We didn't quite go to the actual highest point in Kuwait, but we were close. It is a whopping 1,004 feet (306 meters) above sea level...not what you would call a huge mountain. We didn't care, it was a chance to get out of our normal surroundings, and on a beautiful day where the temp was in the mid 80's and a gorgeous breeze blew over the ridge.

We live in the South in Mahboula. This journey would take us to the North East, towards the border with Iraq.

Zoomed in, hard to tell that there is a ridge here. The circle on the top is the area that we roamed around, the circle on the bottom is where we rode the Quads.

This area where we went is barren, with some evidence of roads and places to wander(with the right car, you could go where ever you wanted). Brigitte and I were just happy to be outside so we set off to check the area out.

We saw the range, but it did not appear that anyone has used it in quite a while.

The air was not super clear. You can see the faint outline of the downtown skyline on the left.

Happy to be outside!

A bit of an Arizona feel in some places...

What was the name of the town in the Cars movie?

Not sure what the tents on the right were for? Solid and likely permanent, but for who and for what?

Cool little lizard

Sadly, like I have talked about in other posts, this area was completely covered in trash. Due to the winds, the open areas didn't have much, but when you looked on the hillsides, and in the nooks and crannies, plastic and trash everywhere :( I'll skip posting photos of that...

On the way in, we passed an area in the desert right off the road where people offered quads to ride around the desert. Some people remarked that this would be fun, so we pulled in to check it out on our way out. Initially, the people running the operation quoted us a super expensive price, and slowly our guide was able to work it down to a reasonable cost so off we went. Most of the people in the bus had never ridden a quad before. When we got out of the bus, they brought machines over to us and said "there you go, have fun".

No papers to sign

No helmets

No deposit

and

No real instructions

It was a blast!!!

Boulevard Mall

We are now enjoying a 5 day break from school. This is giving us some time to rest but also to go an check out some areas that we have not seen yet. Yesterday, we set out to visit one of the large bookstores in the area, then walk to another mall. The bookstore is part of a small mall called the Boulevard Mall. On the map, you can see that is is part of a much larger complex that we wanted to visit. What a pleasant surprise!

We had never seen a plant or flower like this?

Super green and CLEAN!!!

These were creeping along the ground.

This little park was such a breath of fresh air. It was quiet, green, clean and lovely.

Friday Market

This morning we ventured over to the Friday Market. The name is a bit misleading, as this place operates 7 days a week, but traditionally, Friday was when this market was open and full of vendors selling their wares.

As you can see from the satellite image, this market area is large!