#2: [31-Jan-04]

24-Oct-2002 -- After the success of confluence 22N 46E, we headed back towards Laylā passing by some old ruins. We picked up the rest of the family, and headed east through the village of al-Sayḥ onto the plains of al-Biyāḍ. We traveled for about 80 km with relatively good speed since the plains were pretty flat. Soon we could see the Dahnā' dunes emerging from north to south.

We turned north and travelled in parallel to the dunes, looking for a passage or a corridor as it is commonly known between the dunes. Our Confluence was somewhere in between those dunes. We failed to find any opening and decided to ride the dunes, but were soon bogged down in the soft powdery sand. We were only 16 km short of the Confluence. As it was way past 2:00pm, we decided to take a picnic break amongst the reddish dunes.

After the late lunch, we decided to abandon the current approach and instead headed back south and tried to circumnavigate the dunes. We found some tracks leading to the direction we wanted, the soft sands once again bogged us down. The sand boards were out again and eventually we were on hard ground between the dunes. Since nightfall was approaching fast, we decided to abandon the hunt and set up the camp for the night, which turned out to be the most rewarding aspect of the day. Looking at the night sky was like being in a private planetarium, the most spectacular moment was when the red full moon appeared at the horizon at about 8:00pm. The night was pleasantly cool, so we had a good night’s sleep. We were up early for the Fajr prayers, and after a lovely breakfast we broke camp and headed back towards home, happy at what we had achieved.