One of the crew members from the ride found these pictures of the dust storm that cut short our final day of riding. They were taken by a pilot flying at about 8000 feet near the city of Be'er Sheva, about 90 miles north of where we were riding. We were told during the pre-ride safety briefing that sand storms can occur 5 to 10 times a year in the Negev, but one like this hadn't been seen in many years. The height of the dust/sand wall was approximately 4000 feet and it was moving at almost 40 miles per hour. The storm originated in the Sinai and covered the entire Negev.
Its pretty obvious when you look at the storm why the decision was made to suspend the ride until the worst of it blew past us. Of course that decision didn't prevent dust and sand from infiltrating nearly every part of my bicycle, which has a date with the technicians at Dixon's for an overhaul and cleaning.
WOW! We used to get Cimaroons like that in Egypt, but nothing this severe!
ReplyDelete