A Giant Hole in the Ground

Food, Sanity, Bladder Control? You will run out of many things on the drive from Riyadh to the Waba crater. Thankfully, gas isn't one of them. This is Saudi Arabia. Those 4x4s burn through fuel like me on chocolate chip cookies.

Protip: Apply dishwashing fluid to the front of your car to protect paint from chipping away when driving through dusty conditions. Also, rule #1: Always use protection ; )

To pass the time, I read a book about a white guy with a major in something I didn't know existed take an apocryphal Antichrist who uses some archaic knowledge to take over the world. Or something. Oh and there were Pringles! Mmm.. sour cream and intrigue!

Interesting signboard for the trucker "Hotel" at this gas station we stopped at. I feel a little bad that Bangladesh is the only South Asian country left out. : (

If you thought Fuji Water was bad: Sign reads "Alaskan Ice". Palin would be proud.

There is a road leadin right up to the Wa'ba. And by right up to it I mean if you dont slow down, you'll fly off the edge and turn into a twisted wreck on the cliffs.

And our first view of the crater itself... Might be the second time for me, but it's still just as breathtaking (please noone say 'Thats what she said').

Theres only one easy way to climb down into the crater. It's clearly marked though and relatively safe. Emphasis on the 'relatively'. Break a leg and the nearest hospital is still a couple hundred kilometers away.

This time I wasn't taking any chances. Full sleeve shirt on. To avoid that nasty farmers tan 0_0

You don't truly appreciate the size of the thing until you start climbing down. It would take several dozen Hiroshima sized explosions underground to make a hole this large (something I warn you not to try at home ;P)

You know, looking at the photos now, it looks a lot scarier than I remember it... However, it was a really nice walk (downwards). The return route was a little bit more taxing ...

Of course the path down is not *straight* down. Paths like those tend to be painful. Its a winding trail all the way to the bottom.

A strange sight. Somebody obviously decided they didn't need feet protection anymore and discarded shoes halfway down the cliff. Bad ass!

Furqan and Fouad (remember them? : P) near the end of the hike down. As expected, the end is marked by phallic objects. *sigh* Humans.

Owen promptly gets on top of a rock at the bottom. The weather down here is weird. Feels so calm, and not an animal in sight.

And the "Oh Sh*t" moment. As in "Oh Sh*t, I gotta climb that to get back up?!"

The bottom of the crater is covered by a layer of some white salt. On the way back up, I noticed people had scrawled messages into it that could be seen from the very top... Dammit, I knew I should've made a massive www.nidalm.com ;P