The Tree of Life

During the day on Charlie's birthday, we decided to have a family outing. We haven't taken too many yet mostly because it's hard to fit in much between Charlie's two naps, but we decided we really needed to get out and exploring a bit. And it felt good. It made it seem like we actually live in a different, interesting place, rather than just living in a place where everything is a little less convenient than we're used to.

Dave decided to take us to see the Tree of Life. Now this isn't supposed to be the Tree of Life of religious significance, but perhaps some people think it's a miracle. I'll explain more in a minute.
First, a couple pictures of the drive down, getting more of a feel of what things look like here.

A typical roadside view of a residential area.

When we got to the lower/middle portion of the island, the landscape was very barren and we started seeing these little tent things all over...

Apparently the locals all go "camping" for the winter months and set up these tents. Didn't look toko comfortable or convenient to me for such a long time, but I got a peek inside a few and they are quite well-furnished with couches, rugs, etc.

There are seas of these tents.

Not far past all the campers, there stands the Jebel, or one mountain, on the island.

The Jebel

Near the Jebel is where most of the oil fields are. We went to the site of the first oil well sunk in the Arabian Penninsula.

Then we turned off into the desert along unmarked paths and drove and drove. I have no idea how Dave found it, but eventually we saw the Tree of Life. It was pretty obvious to find once we were in sight distance, a large, lone tree in the middle of a very barren landscape.

They call it the Tree of Life because it has supposedly lived several times as long as the typical tree of its kind and with no water source anyone can find. People have sunk wells nearby to try to find its source but can't find one.

Unfortunately there was grafitti all over the branches and people were climbing all over the tree. Davey wanted to join in so we compromised by letting him sit on a branch for a picture.

We took a more scenic drive home along the water. I am amazed by how little of the coastline has been developed. If it were in the States I'm sure it would be difficult to find an empty piece of beachfront property.

One of the views. I'm not that great at these shots.