At one point we saw a sign that said 'Rebel Group' with an arrow under it. Of course the sign said the name of the rebel group, but here's a picture of what the arrow was pointing to. I'm sure that if we'd just headed off roading in that direction we would have eventually come to something, but still...just the fact that there was a sign with an arrow pointing to the desert says a lot.
The road was like a farm road except not. For one, you absolutely have to have a 4x4, even if you're only on the 'highway'. It's just a blacktop road in the middle of nowhere except that it was the desert and there were no lines or shoulders, no one-light towns, no crossroads at all, just a whole lot of nothing with goats and camels. And people here are crazy, driving about 90 and passing at the last minute, even going off of the road and onto the sand and then just whipping back onto the road.
There is no public transportation out in the middle of nowhere (at least not that I could tell) so there were people all over just standing on the side of the road waiting for anyone who would give them a ride. Several observations: 1) Where did they come from?? Seriously, it was the middle of nowhere, nothing to be seen for miles except these random guys with their stark white jalabiyyas flowing in the wind. 2) We were in the second car, so we got to see the looks on their faces when they realized that a car with 5 white guys just flew by, it was great! 3) Lots of them would gesture angrily when they realized that we weren't going to stop, we got lots of those 'throw your arm into the air, what the heck are you thinking' kind of angry looks. As if it was our obligation to stop and pick up any and every one on the side of the road. Well, I saw plenty of locals with empty seats in their cars too so I don't think it's a cultural obligation.
We joked about going around the checkpoints, just take off into the desert and see what happened. Theoretically, as long as we kept the river on the left, we wouldn't have to worry about getting lost, but we figured that, seeing as how we'd already done a little conversing with security, if we got caught we could really be in big trouble. Also a little joking about West Nile Virus but don't worry, we stayed on the East side of the river the entire time!
