Yesterday, Mark took Aven, Garnet, Martha and me out to a hotel in a small town in a
mountainous area; many of the mountains had old fortifications on their peaks. We had a
look round, enjoyed some cold drinks and then began wending our way back home.
As we sat in the hotel, the wind increased, it began to thunder, and a storm blew in
--partly sandstorm and partly rainstorm. The local children were out enjoying this
rare rain. At one place on the desert Mark commented that it had perhaps not rained
for 7 or 8 years! When it was raining, the temperature outside the Land Rover had dropped
to 28 C, then no more than half an hour later, in an area of large sand dunes, where people were
playing about with their 4-wheeled drive vehicles, I noticed that the temperature was 42 C.
We stopped at the side of the highway to watch the cars and dune buggies but soon everyone
scrambled to get into shelter as a sandstorm blew in. The sand drifted across the highway
like snow on the fields of the Canadian Prairies.