Finding places to walk your dog in Qatar is relatively easy, given that there are so many vacant lots of dusty land dotted around all over the city, but also quite challenging, as you may often encounter piles of waste and litter and also get hassle from people who fear or dislike dogs. The ground can be rough and difficult to walk on and nowhere is completely traffic free, as empty land is often used as a short cut, given that most people have 4WD vehicles.
Walking anywhere in Doha is challenging, as the city has been built around the car and pedestrians are only ever considered, if at all, as an afterthought. Some roads do have pavements, but they are prone to running out, or may be in a very poor state, and opportunities to cross the road are few and far between, with most roads having three lanes of traffic running in each direction.
Some people get lucky and find a great walking route close to their compound. But for owners of bigger, more active dogs, a weekly trip to the beach or the mangroves is often necessary to give your dog a safe and enjoyable opportunity to run around freely.
Personally, I make the trip at least every other day. It’s a great way of tiring my dog out, and there are relatively few distractions on the beach, so it provides good training opportunities, and I really enjoy getting away from the city.
There is a Facebook group called Dogwalkers in Doha which you can request to join – members post on an almost daily basis saying where they’re going dog walking and you can choose to join them, or avoid them, depending on your dog and your mood!
Here are the main places for dog walking around Doha:
Al Wakra Beach
The small town of Al Wakra is about 20km south of the city, and there are a number of ways to get there, including a fast new highway which passes by the new airport. Some expats choose to live in Al Wakra, but there isn’t much to do there, and it is a long taxi journey into Doha for nights out and shopping.
As you drive into Al Wakra, you will see a large power station/desalination plant on the left (Ras Al Funtas). Shops will appear on both sides of the road. You will then arrive at a roundabout with a large, white oyster shell in the middle of it (‘Pearl Roundabout’).
Turn LEFT at Pearl Roundabout and head straight down the road towards the huge pile of sand. Here, the road ends abruptly, so do a u-turn and then take an immediate right. You will pass ‘Marah Land’ on the left. Just after this, make a right and you will see the beach ahead of you. You can park anywhere you like.
Personally, I choose to drive onto the beach and head off as far to the right as possible – at low tide this will usually get you far away enough from other beach users to ensure that you have a lot of space for your dog to run around freely without bothering, or being bothered by, other people. But don’t drive onto the beach unless you have been with someone else first, as there are only one or two safe places to get onto the beach and you need to know where the areas of soft sand are, which must be avoided if you don’t want to get your car stuck! Once on the beach, drive as close to the water line as possible, as this will keep you away from the soft sand, and also avoid any of the raised spits of dry sand, as these tend to be softer and more difficult to drive on.
It is very helpful to know the tides, as the water here is very shallow for many hundreds of metres, so even a 10cm difference in tide height can produce a rapid change in the amount of dry beach available. At low tides, you can drive right out to the old lorry axle which is situated down the far end of the beach.
The old lorry axle at the south end of Wakra beach
At mid tide, this area is covered, but you can park closer to the land and there are lots of sand islands you can walk out with your dog. The water gets no deeper than knee or thigh height anywhere on the beach.
Playing around on the 'islands' at Wakra beach at mid-tide
At high tide, it’s not really worth going at all, as the beach gets completely inundated with water, so you will not be able to walk unless you wade through the water.
Al Wakra beach at mid-high tide
There is land around the beach, but it is usually busy and covered in BBQ waste and litter, so not ideal for dog walking.
For tides, I have the Navionics Marine: Australasia and Africa app on my iPhone, which is expensive at £30.99, but I get plenty of use from it and it’s very detailed. Now that I know Wakra beach really well, I can look up how high the tide is and picture what the beach will look like in my head, which enables me to assess whether or not it’s worth going. A low tide is around 0.5m or less, mid-tide is around 0.8m and anything over 1m is not worth bothering with as the beach is completely inundated.
If you don’t want to fork out so much money on an app, you can use the Easytide website, although this can be quite limiting; I don’t find it to be detailed enough for a shallow beach where a few centimetres can make all the difference.
The Mangroves
‘The Mangroves’ which most people talk about in the context of dog walking are about 20 minutes south of Al Wakra, so they take around 45 minutes to reach from Doha.
It is more isolated and pretty than Al Wakra beach. I tend to go there on Fridays, when dog-walking on Wakra beach is almost impossible because of the number of families picnicking. It is also less tide-sensitive than Wakra beach, so you can go there even when the tide is high.
To get there, head to Al Wakra, but pass straight over the Pearl Roundabout (instead of turning left for the beach). Go straight over all of the other roundabouts too. Beware of newly installed speed cameras along this 80km/h route.
You will end up leaving Al Wakra behind and will be on the main highway to Mesaieed, with a 120km/h speed limit (and plenty of speed cameras). You will eventually pass a petrol station to the right. You will then pass a u-turn gap marked ’emergency vehicles only’ and then a speed camera facing towards you. At the NEXT speed camera, which faces away from you, there is a gap where you should make a u-turn, so make sure you’re in the outside lane in good time (approx. 4km after the petrol station).
After you’ve done your u-turn, drive for approx. 2km and take the next right-hand turn, which is signposted with a warning triangle quite late, so make sure you’re on the inside lane. This will take you over a small hump-backed bridge and towards a car scrapyard. Once you get to the start of the scrapyard, turn right and follow this rough and ready track along the edge of the scrapyard and then passing a ‘canal site investigation office’ to your right. (You are now off-roading, pretty much, but you don’t need 4WD engaged at any point during this journey, and it is possible to get to the mangroves in a ‘normal’ saloon car).
Eventually, the track forks into three – take the left fork and head towards the coastguard station and tree slightly to the left and ahead of you. When the road forks again, just make sure you are headed in the vague direction of the coastguard building and you can’t go wrong – all of the tracks will lead you to the coast.
You should aim to reach the coastline just to the left of the coastguard building. Cut up and across the sand ahead of you and then follow the tracks to the left, keeping the sea and mangrove trees to your right. You can park somewhere along the track, or keep driving. If you follow the trees and coastline, you will eventually come to a sandy area with lots of lovely saltwater pools scattered around it. There is a gap in the mangrove trees here, through which you can walk to a beautiful creek (which can be crossed at mid-low tide to get through to a beautiful, remote beach). Alternatively, you can just carry on along the track, keeping all the mangrove trees on your right, and you will eventually (after about 30 minutes of walking) come out onto the same beach, but at a different place.
This is all quite difficult to explain, so it is worth joining the ‘Dogwalkers in Doha’ Facebook group and tagging along with someone else the first time you go. Personally, I don’t like going there alone anyway, as it feels too isolated and I worry about what would happen if I got into any bother.
It is a really stunning spot, and great for doing a circular route, which can add a welcome sense of purpose to your walking.
Here are some photos, including those from the first annual beach clean which took place there in November 2011.
The mangroves at sunset
Our dog undertaking her favourite pastime of fish hunting
Walking along the track towards the mangroves. We usually park where the cars in the photo are, close to the pools and the gap in the trees which leads through to the creek.
The mangroves beach clean November 2011
The organisers of the mangroves beach clean
All the participants in the mangroves beach clean
There are other places to walk your dog in Qatar, which I might cover another day, but really these are the two best places to go within a 45 minute drive of the city.
Dog Blog Qatar 