The venue for the Trial I am involved with this week is around a 6 - 8 minute walk from my Hotel, so in an effort to do some exercise this week, I have decided to walk rather get a taxi.
In the the Middle East that is sometime easier said than done - even in November it can still be pretty warm and Qatar is no exception. On the first morning, I managed to navigate a route that allowed me to keep more or less in the shadows (there are some very tall buildings around the route which I was able to use as shade) but had kept my jacket on so that I was somewhat hot and sweaty when I arrived.
However, notwithstanding the temperature, the biggest challenge was that Doha - particularly in the business areas where my hotel is located, is not really designed for people to walk around. So there was a marked absence of pavements (and many of those that were available had been blocked off - mainly it seemed to stop people parking on them). I therefore found my self traversing car parks and access roads for the various Government buildings, apartment blocks and hotels I passed on my way.
This led to a number of dead-ends - I was able to see my destination (another skyscraper) but the most direct route (keeping to the shade) led me down cul-de-sacs, through construction sites or into underground car parks and led to some entertaining conversations with security guards who were somewhat bemused to encounter a be-suited, gently perspiring out of towner with a briefcase wandering around their subterranean lairs!
After trial and error I have now found the optimal route - around 6 minutes and limited number of car park visits but it is quite an interesting reflection on the degree to which the town planners here are expecting most people to travel by car.
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