Sand Spider

While home, a fellow Navy officer asked if I had seen sand spiders. I replied that I had not but that I had seen some pictures of some of the more larger specimens. And they can grow to be pretty large.

While at Ali al Salem, I was waiting to assist in the offload of some of our checked baggage. It was around 0130 local time. An Air Force lieutenant colonel I was speaking with said, “Hey, what’s that?” pointing the ground. We saw something that at first looked like a mid-sized brown scorpion scurrying along the ground at a pretty good clip. As I got closer, I saw it was a legendary sand spider. It seemed fearless and changed course to come in my direction. “Are they poisonous?” I asked while weaving to avoid its charge. “No, but their bite is quite painful, so I’m told.” I got out my camera and attempted to take a picture documenting this encounter. As I got closer to it, it would change course to come at me. I would back away and then again attempt to get closer. Eventually, I snapped a somewhat X-Files-like picture. It was much bigger than it appears. Really.