The Edge of the World!

Before the sandstorm I had actually gone to a place called "The Edge of the World."  It's a big cliff that (on a clear day) has a view below for miles of desert.  We had gone out once before to try and find it but we didn't quite make it there.  Previously we made it to a sort of desert checkpoint where the road was blocked by a long arm barrier gate.  There was a guy there manning it, but he basically just shooed us away and wouldn't let us through.  At that time, we tried to go around but we just ended up on a main road eventually and just went back home.

After another try (on another day), the guy driving eventually found a way around (the other direction) that bypassed the checkpoint by using Google satellite pictures and a GPS. So last Friday, we went to go see it.

We drove out on the road and eventually we came to a point where you are supposed to turn off and drive down a desert road.  It is at this point where things start to get a bit bumpy and it is necessary to have a four wheel drive vehicle.  We bumped along for about a half an hour where we came to the same checkpoint and saw four other vehicles sitting there because they had been refused to be allowed through the checkpoint.

So we drove up to them and the driver (Matt's boss) asked them if they wanted to follow us because he knew a way around the checkpoint.  Now if you have made it out that far already, it is kind of a bummer being stopped before making it there so it was no surprise that all four SUV's decided to follow.  So off we went, now a group of 5 cars total.

The desert here is this vast open space that all looks very much the same, so it would be very easy to get lost.  There are "roads" all over the place, but all the "roads" are just tracks where someone has previously driven.  They are randomly all over the place going all directions.

It was a bit of a windy day, so the visibility isn't all that great.  Basically, the desert just stretches out like this in all directions.  It would be very easy to get lost and just be stuck out there.  Not surprisingly, cell phone reception out here is sketchy at best.

So we kept on driving and eventually we came to a place that was a bit hairy.  It was about 3 kilometers away from the Edge of the World.  But, you have to drive over it if you want to get there.  It was at this point that I am certain that the people following us started to have second thoughts or rather started questioning why they followed some random people so far out into the middle of the desert without knowing where exactly they were going.

The thing that you can't see on the video is that on the left of the vehicle is a rather far drop off the side, so if the vehicle tilts left, you could easily roll off the side and then roll down to the bottom.  Not a very desirable outcome.  This was probably why the last SUV decided to go more towards the middle.  Please note that another car had previously done this successfully.

What you don't see in this video is the water draining out of his now cracked radiator.  One of the guys tried to seal it up with some sort of putty but it didn't really work.  They were able to get enough water into the radiator so that they could drive it back over the hairy part and then tow it all the way back across the desert with a tow rope.  (And this is why you probably shouldn't go out into the desert alone!)

In the meantime, the family in the broken car piled in with the people in the other cars and we drove the remaining 3 kilometers to get to the Edge of the World which was definitely something to see.  Here are the pics.

Hmmm... does this picture look familiar? 

Same shot, but without me blocking the view.

The other side.

Notice that Sammy is back.  Matt went to Germany in January to go pick him up.  So Sammy has lived in the US, Macau, Germany, and now Saudi Arabia.  (Note* he also had stop overs in Taiwan and he was ferried over to Hong Kong as well.) He is looking a bit older, but none the worse for the wear.

In other news, today was the Marathon.  I am sad to report that I was unable to run.  I was holding out hope but yesterday I realized that it just wasn't going to happen.  To say that I was disappointed is an understatement.  It just seems so anti-climactic!  All that training and then no race at the end! Currently, I can't seem to make it past a mile without my IT band giving me trouble.  But, I can still walk, bike, and swim with no problem so I have been doing that.  It only hurts when I run. :(

I am looking into finding another marathon to run when I figure out how to get rid of this annoyance!  But, I hope that the race went well for the others who were running today.  It probably wouldn't have been the most exciting race anyway as there were only 15 people signed up to run the full marathon.  Others were competing in relay teams but in total, it probably would have only been about 50 people in attendance.  This would have been much less than the previous half marathon we ran and that was quite  a lonely race! So, I didn't get to run my race, and finishing the rest of the running season here is not looking good, but the injury doesn't seem too bad so it could be worse.