Dahals in the Summan, an update

I mentioned in a previous post of our failed attempt to find a cache in one of the many sinkholes (dahals) in the Summan desert plateau because of lack of proper gear. Well, I’m happy to report that this time we bagged the cache with ease. We left on a Thursday morning from Riyadh to Rumah on the Riyadh-Dammam highway. We first made a stop at SACO store and purchased a foldable ladder but were not sure if it will fit within the hole opening and had some doubts about its length. The drive was a scenic one and the desert was in full bloom after the rainy season.

We first made a stop at Dahal Shawiyah (GCE180) and descended quickly into the upper and lower chamber without looking at the cache description/pictures. That proved to be a mistake. Our search for the cache in the lower chamber did not turn into any find so after a while we quit and decided to leave and headed north to the Mines of Moria cache (GC8069).

Arriving on site, we lowered the ladder easily into the Dahal but it was a little short so we tied it with a rope hooked to our car. I was accompanied by two of my cousins and both were eager to go down. They used the rope to reach the top of the ladder and descended easily. After reaching the bottom, Abu Talal was a little hesitant to grab the cache box so that task went to the hard-headed regular geocacher, cousin Hamad.

We then took a tour of the nearby garden (Rawdat Ma’aqla) before leaving the area. The tarmac continues north to Al-Rafee'ah but we took a short cut across the Dhana dunes that cross it from east to south west along a line parallel to the newly constructed power line. I read about this road (about 64km) in mekshat website. The journey across the dunes was beautiful at this time of the year. Our trip did not stop here as we continued to Al-Tenhat but that is a subject of a new post coming soon.