The Season of Mists

The weather has finally cooled down enough to illicit a few shivers...or is it more than just that...

Driving back home late a few nights ago, I lost myself in the delicate wispy tendrils of mist that crept onto the edges of the highway. Around this time of year, the damp in the ground (Bahrain is, for the most part, just a few meters above sea-level) rises and the little droplets of moisture form a dense layer of fog which hangs a few meters above the ground. The Fog can basically appear anywhere and with little or no notice; one minute you are driving along with clear views and the next minute, you are driving through a cloud and can barely see more than the front of your hood.

Aside from living in a hot country where clouds in the sky are a rare occurance, there is something else that is exciting and slightly scary about the mist. Aside from the novelty value, there is something about the way the damp gets under your skin and into your bones and just sits there, making sure that you know something is different.

Now the strongest concentration of mist is typically in the areas that are not yet built up where the moisture can easily rise to the surface. One such place is the the highway to Saudi which has large tracts of land on either side in the final stretch before the bridge, which brings us to my story...

Driving home late one night, I sped under the fly-over and emerged from the other side underneath a thick blanket of mist. It hung about 4-5 meters above the ground, well over my head, and was so well lit by the street lamps overhead that the fog seemed luminescent. And as I looked above me, the structures formed by the fog within the confines of the corridor of the highway reminded me of the interior structures of a Gaudi building; that is to say, I felt like I was in the belly of some organic beast that had swallowed me whole. And as I gazed up at the rib-like tendrils of mist that formed this perfect compartment, I realised that was scared but could not tell you off what. And then, quicker than it had appeared, the mist lifted and I was on the exit heading home...

Location, location, location; I guess you had to be there to understand...