With the rev of an engine and a last tremendous pull, drivers' vehicles were freed from the sand and rising tides near a resort in the desert state of Qatar, as volunteers from the Aoun Qatar rescue team came to wrench them out with towing cables. Hundreds head into the desert at weekends in Qatar's cooler months, when expatriates, tourists and locals spill out of the capital Doha to barrel down dunes in all-terrain vehicles or camp beneath the stars. "Usually the reports that come from sand or dunes areas are easier. But the harder reports come from [owners of] cars that are underwater or the places that are muddy," says a volunteer from Aoun. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES