Friday Flashback – December Camping Trip Part 4

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For Part 1 go HERE

For Part 2 go HERE

For Part 3 go HERE

Yes, we tarried too long at the station, and we were also plain stupid…. we were too excited about seeing the old ruins to notice that next to the mosque was a… yes,  that building all the way to the right is a police station……

They must also have not been concentrating because just as we were leaving they noticed action at the fort, jumped into a few cars and drove across the road to where we were parked:

Their first words to us were, “Where did you come from?!” The men explained that we were coming to see their old buildings, and Arab hospitality being what it is, they offered to show us the station 🙂 The guys then had to explain that we’d already been in there and looked around, which disconcerted the poor cops even more… a couple more cars came along, with more cops, with more stripes on their shoulders, and more chatting, and more gesturing, and more broken English & Arabic, until they finally told us we could continue, but they would escort us for our safety…..

Now we knew this was going to happen, so we took it in our stride, still hopeful that they would let us go a little later and camp.

Conversation in our car while the men talked to the police:

DD: Are we doing something illegal?

Me: Well, kind of… not really… sort of….

DD: Like the sign said we weren’t allowed to go in the old fort…

Me: Yes, but.. the gate was open… and they only say that so people don’t go and vandalize things…

DD: So that makes it alright if the gates are open?

Me: Well…. probably not, but… kindof…. um…. errr…..

DD: Why are the police escorting us?

Me: They want to keep an eye on us….

DD: so we don’t do more illegal things…????

Me: sigh…..

To make her and the others feel a little bit more comfortable with a police escort, I told them we would call him our D.L.F (ala Narnia). He was a very friendly chap and followed us as we went and visited another fort or two:

It wasn’t long before  D.L.F. ‘s boss came speeding up and passing us with his lights going and sirens blaring to take the lead… so we were very well escorted and cringing slightly at all the attention we were getting!

It was just after 1pm when we left the highway to follow the railway through the desert. We knew that as soon as we went offroad it would be only a matter of time till we were told by the police that we were not going to be allowed to continue… but we tried to see how far we could go. At the first fort we stopped for lunch:

Nice and cool in the shade….

The fort we had lunch next to was all closed off, but it did have a date on the front:

While we were having our leisurely lunch, the cops were patiently waiting for us a few hundred meters away:

What happened after lunch will have to wait till the next post, but in the meantime, here is a puzzle for you all…….

What is the date on the plaque above??????