Things to Do in Qatar: The Cross-Country Road Trip

A lot of expats in Qatar find the country dull, that there's nothing to do.  They're wrong, so don't listen to them.  Granted, it is easier to get bored but not for lack of activities.  But like anywhere, Qatar is what you make it to be.

Since arriving just over six months ago, I have not had an inactive day except by choice (taking a break from having too much to do).  And not just work.  My job has provided me with a lot of opportunities to get out and do what I want, often whenever I want to.  And there's always the weekend (which is Friday-Saturday here).

One thing I've quite enjoyed is getting around and seeing the country.  It's not big, so one can drive around the entire Peninsula on a single tank of gas, in a single day, with a few liters and hours to spare.

Our route around the Peninsula

A friend of mine and I did just that a couple months ago.  I'd finally gained my driver's license.  Even though I'd been to the southern desert, Dubai (twice) and Egypt, and planned a trip to Oman, I wanted to get out of Doha and see the countryside -- the whole countryside.  So I got a four-wheel-drive Nissan Pathfinder from Al Muftah Car Rentals, practiced on Friday, and we headed out Saturday morning about 8:30.  Our goal was to see every point of interest we could possibly get to.

We'd already seen the Barzan Towers in Umm Salal Muhammad and month or so before, so we breezed through the last settlement on Highway 1, through open space, and north up the eastern coast to Al-Khor for its famous Mangroves.

The southern third of Qatar is basically a sandy desert, and the rest is a rocky desert; so the Mangroves are one of the few naturally green places in Qatar.  It's a nice area.  Water flows through it.  My friend enlightened me as to the workings of the mangrove plant.  Apparently, it has the ability to take in salt water and put it out clean.  The back of each leaf expels the separated salt (so I licked the back of one -- it was good).  The place is quiet and generally has few visitors, and definitely worth wandering about.

After about a half hour or so in the Mangroves we headed up to Al-Jassasiya to find Qatar's semi-famed petroglyphs.  While their origins and use are still not fully determined, the current assumption is that they were carved at least several centuries ago.  Some depict boats, flowers, and other natural things.  There are also a number of troughs and holes that some believe were part of some game.  Unfortunately, the entire place was fenced off, and as big an area as it covered, we likely wouldn't have found the carvings anyhow.

Following the fruitless stop, we continued to Qatar's northernmost town, Madinat Ash Shamal (which is basically combined with Al-Ruwais).  There wasn't necessarily anything to see, but we did stop there a bit after noon to have our lunch (which included forbidden bacon) on the walk that looked out over the tidal bay.

When we were no longer starving, Isaac and I continued on our trek, finally turning south.  Our goal was the fort and abandoned settlement of Al-Zubarah, but along the way we found an interesting site.  Whereas we hadn't been able to see any rock carvings at Jassasiya, along the northwestern road we stumbled across some isolated petroglyphs.  Nothing particularly special, just a series of holes and scrapes.  But for some reason they were mildly interesting.

We then made for Zubarah.  That was probably the highlight of the trip.  The first fort was established back in the eighteenth century, destroyed, and rebuilt several times.  The Bahrainis, Ottomans, and Qataris have all used

the site to defend what was once an important pearling and trading port.  Today the settlement is abandoned and the subject of an archaeological project.  What remained of the most recent fort has been excellently restored.  Because it's out of the way, the fort is basically empty.  One can wander around freely and see the whole place, undisturbed.  RasGas or QaPCo (can't remember which) provided for the renovations, and so the exhibits inside are mostly about the geology of the Peninsula and oil-and-gas production.  But the fort is definitely worth seeing.

 

The journey carried on through the interior.  It's a dry, empty expanse of rock, some sand, and the occasional shrub.  Despite the occasional "Camel Crossing" sign, without sighting any such thing, that part of our drive was basically uneventful.

I steered off the highway just northeast of Dukhan (the only active town on the western coast) up to Zekreet.  We intended to go up to what Google Maps has marked as the intriguingly named "Mystery Village," but couldn't figure out the way.  Instead, we headed for another fort.  That one proved highly disappointing.  the Zekreet Fort is a ruin now.  One can make the outline, but no more than a foot of the walls remain.

The Zekreet area itself, however, is worth the trip.  The beach is nice, but much more the rocky features just off the road.  None are particularly high (though if one fell off some it would hurt pretty badly), but they're a wonder to wander.  Carved by centuries of water and wind, one can find seams of iron and quartz run through them.  The colors are interesting.  Were it not so hot, we could have explored the mesas and valleys for hours.

The rented vehicle had to be back in Doha by 6:00 PM, so the day was running short.  We had intended to follow the road on to Dukhan, then back east; instead, we traveled the road through Al-Rayyan and directly to the rental place.

A terrific trip.