Stage 4 was all about sand:
Sand dunes and dunettes and sandy riverbeds, not to mention the steep, glissading descent down a steep dune at the edge of a jebel. The cutoff for the day was Thursday evening and many battled through the night to finish, buffeted by ferocious winds. By late afternoon yesterday, the so-called rest day, the sand-blasting had reached a peak as swirling gusts of sand created a desert storm.