An alien landscape, modelled on the photographs of Chris Friel

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Created with the help of Photojojo's guide on creating your own planet using a panorama. Give it a try...

probably too late to be writing this to be fair, so I may be brief.

The last couple of days have been spent haring off down the Damman highway, either there or back. It's a drive of about 400Km each way and is pretty much as dull as dishwater. Mile after mile of empty desert, broken only by the sighting of the occasional camel and the monotonous regularity of the petrols stops along the way. It's not a journey that you could describe as having recognisable landmarks along the way, but after a few trips that way, certain features do allow you to tick off the time as you go. There are a couple of checkpoints heading out of Riyadh, one after about 20 minutes travelling, another after an hour. The red sand dunes the road cuts through, then the "Desert Eye" - a bit like the London Eye but smaller and smack in the middle of nowhere in particular, surrounded by a half built compound of some sorts. A little later come the farm with the long wall - that's about an hour from the end of the Bahrain Causeway, and gives you a clue that you're over halfway there. Some time later, you see the big mound with a rock on the top and then cross over a bridge with lots of (presumably) oil pipes running underneath. Then bear off right where the highway splits - one road to Bahrain and Khobar, the other north and off to Jubail. The last landmark of any note is as you pass behind the Royal Saudi Air Force Base at Dhahran - it was outside here, at the International Hotel, that you'd have seen all the journalists reporting the progress of the 1st Gulf War to kick Saddam out of Kuwait. Lastly is the Causeway itself and across to Bahrain, but not this time...

No, not this time. Myself and a colleague of some 8 years standing now, were off to check on the progress of a project that's been under way for some time. The practicalities of getting there meant that we probably spent twice as long on the road as we did on the site, but such is the size of this place. It's just a shame that the geography of the Central and Eastern Provinces doesn't really encourage you to want to explore it, just get through it. Quite how a people came to decide that the place was hospitable I don't know. It was a constant 45/46C in both directions and not a place you'd like to be stranded in.

I'm back now and tired, I crashed out for an hour or so when I got back, and have done nothing much all evening (CSI: Miami, CSI: Vegas, Law & Order, Sky News... yes, when I said nothing, I meant nothing). At least we're now into the weekend, and although there is the fortnightly shop to do, I will likely do not very much for the next two days. This is a good thing...