Ras Tanura is a community on the coast about an hour bus ride from here. Aramco has its main tanker onloading terminal there, so there is a compound adjacent to the terminal. The ships load well offshore. You can easily see them in the Google satellite image. If you zoom in you can find the Aramco compound by the greenery and the long beach facing the Persian Gulf. I went there today to explore the beach and try to fish. The morning was a really beautiful day early on, but around noon the wind picked up and the water became a little rough and by sunset it was rather chilly (I left my jacket back in Dharhan). Signs said no fishing on the beach - damn! I looked down the beach and saw a guy way off fishing so I headed down the beach and started fishing well away from the pampered beach. Beautiful almost white sand, turquoise clear water, cloudless sky above, and temperatures in the 70's. The beach runs like that for about 2 to 3 miles of Aramco compound. I tried to wade out, but the temperatures here for the past couple weeks have been in the 40's at night, so it was a quick spin around to get back up on the dry beach. Using my little ultra light spinning outfit I was throwing a small spoon and getting hits every few casts right on the edge of the grass patches in about 3 feet of water and finally I caught several. They were 2 feet or so long and skinny little needle fish with mean looking teeth. It was really hard to get a hook into that long hard mouth. I would fight one for a few seconds and he would let go. It was fun getting those hits. Nothing else hit my spoon. Water is just too cold.

Took some texture photos of the sand to use in a few backgrounds for presentations.

The housing right along the beachfront was really rather nice. I was told that the sunset was beautiful there, but when I got there I realized that the sun sets in back of the beach - would make for some beautiful sunrises, though. I was too late for the Friday morning breakfast/brunch and the sunrise.

The scene along the beachfront was a scene of contrast here in Saudi Arabia - around the volley ball net was around 8 bikini clad expat teenage girls whooping it up and in the background just yards away were several groups of Saudi women completely clad in their abayas and head coverings walking along the beach. I walked from one end of the beach to the other and back,picking up a few seashells and reading a book as I walked along the wet sand. As the sun was setting I found a coffee bar and sandwich shop over looking the Gulf. That cup of tea there was just wonderful, but would have been even better with a glass of wine. Neat place. Will definitely go back there when the water warms.