Dear Doha Diary

 26th March marks the beginning of the 3rd year of the war in Yemen - the day on which Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Gulf and African nations, intervened in a civil war in the country between the Iranian backed Houthi rebels (a tribal faction from the North of the country) and the rest (an amalgamation of government troops under President Hadi and young men allied to the Southern Movement). This war with seemingly no end in sight, has disappeared from view to the outside world.  Out-miseried by the atrocities in Syria and Iraq and of course outranked by events in Europe of late, most recently the attack on Westminster Bridge in London. But what many don't seem to understand or want to discuss is that these events are all interrelated.  Considering Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, it might be a surprise to know that the UK and US are making a nice tidy sum out of it. A recent Amnesty International report states "the USA and UK combined have mad...

Qatar has seen an unusual period of sustained rainfall in the last week or so.  Some say they haven't experienced rain like it for 20 years.  It wasn't particularly heavy but it rained on and off for an entire week, causing flooding and standing water across the country and turning areas of desert into lakes and swamps. Having heard about the potential for a treasure chest of blooms locked beneath the sand, to burst through after heavy or prolonged rainfall, we decided to go on a desert flower hunt. In the pouring rain, we set off west towards Umm Bab - which means "mother gateway", referring to two small hills either side of an opening giving the appearance of a gateway.  Its a small coastal town built to accommodate the workers of Qatar Petroleum in 1948. When we arrived at Umm Bab beach, a beautiful oasis of palm trees and low lying shrubs, the sun mysteriously came out and the rain stopped!  The guys playing football there were pretty happy about t...

Having found a nice little spot to spend the night, on a sandy spit, east of Al Khor, stretching out into the Arabian Gulf, I parked Grey Legs and spread out my towel.  I changed out of my cycling clothes and hung them out to dry on the handle bars. The spit was raised out of the sea with large rocks and as I relaxed after my day in the saddle, I listened to the water lapping gently and shoals of fish jumping and darting about around the surface of the ocean. The sun had now gone down and the sky was a dusky pink to violet, turning to dark blue, and looking up I saw the moon, just over half full and bright.  There was a light breeze and the humidity began to pick up a little as darkness fell. I had noticed a group of Philippino guys parked up and a few of them wandered past me towards the end of the spit, carrying what looked like camping equipment.  I was a little disappointed that Id be sharing the space but they weren't too close and seemed quiet enough. ...

With Eid AlAdha approaching and the weather cooling to a mere 40 degrees, what better time to plan another micro-adventure and this time to do something I've been dying to do for a long time - sleep in the desert under the stars. After little sleep and an aching back, I hauled myself out of bed and set off at 6.30 am on the day of Arafat, a fasting day for Muslims, before the celebrations of Eid Al Adha - the Festival of the Sacrifice - begin.   Roads were quiet, temperatures around 35C and no wind.  I planned to cycle up the coastal road running along the east coast of Qatar, to Al Khor, a small town in the North East, located on a creek - Al Khor is Arabic for 'the creek'.   The ride would be approximately 50km which I estimated would take me 2.5 hours, give or take a stop when necessary. Id heard of a small island among the mangroves - for which Al Khor is famous - which looked like it might be a good place to camp and star gaze, away from bright lights and civi...