Desert Camping Trip

It came to pass that a few weeks after our picnic in the desert the same crew agreed to go camping in the desert in the direction of Liwa. And so began the sweet building glow of anticipation that surrounds a weekend away with friends and family. Rooting around in our storage closet for our camping gear only served to heighten our excitement and got us in the proper mood for adventure.

We set off in a convoy of three SUVs and covered ground at a rapid pace over a sandblown E11 heading out into the great emptiness. After a bit of searching down the wrong road we got on track and found the entry point to the patch of desert we were looking for. We pulled off the road and deflated our tires - this is essential as fully inflated tires readily dig deep into the sand and lead promptly to getting stuck.

Here we are at our campsite with snack preparation well under way.

Helen guarding our tent...and looking good doing it.

Campsite buzzing with activity...sort of. See the big red dune in the distance - remember for future reference.

Fashionable fellow campers.

Hannah and Mackenzie and friends having a boring time, can you tell?

Sunset. Later that night we made s'mores. Then we took a blanket away from the campfire and laid on our backs to watch the night sky. A beautiful carpet of stars, a couple of satellites and some shooting stars put on a good show.

The kids hiked over to the big red dune and the adults eventually followed in cars.

Ode to Pajero and big red dune. Those tiny black specks at the ridge of the dune are folks from our party. It was an exhausting climb but we all made it to the top!

Here we are! Again, black specks on the dune face are people...and Helen.

The specks in front are people climbing the dune. The speck in middle is the car. We camped in the dunes at the far end of the flat valley.

 Adrienne and Helen at the top.

View from the top.

Another view from the top.

We returned to our campsite and found camels wandering around nearby. Mom and baby.

 Go figure...camels in the desert.

 Turns out when we got back to camp we noticed the wind starting to pick up and a very dark bank of clouds moving in from the direction of big red. All of the sudden the wind increased and tents were pushed flat and camp detritus was blown with the wind. We all scrambled and shouted to each other to break camp as fast as possible. Just as we were packing the last of our gear the rain swept in and we all hopped in our cars and made the journey back to the road. Two other campsites were doing the same and we departed in a massive convoy. Adrienne took this picture about 15 minutes after we left the camp area. All the kids switched cars and we ended up with these troopers. Note the wet road out the back window, a rare sight in these parts. Helen was also beat after the climb up the dune and she was happy to hang with the exhausted boys. A few hours later we were back in Abu Dhabi, ready for another week.

Camel Milking and Other Abu Dhabi Activities

For the last few months we have been busy with all kinds of activities around Abu Dhabi. We saw Australian car races at the new Yas Island Marina Circuit, right next to Ferrari World. We suited up and went Go-Karting there too, inside the fancy circuit. John won. The girls rented funky four wheeled bikes and pedaled around the Corniche for Mackenzie's birthday. I took pictures of that, but the digital images mysteriously disappeared. Probably the most fun we had in the last few months was a day in the desert. Fortunately, we have plenty of pictures from that day, so here they are.

We drove east of Abu Dhabi about an hour with two other families from the girls' school. One of the families has lived here for several years and knew of a good place for dune bashing and a desert picnic. We deflated our tires before we got off the desert road for better traction. Then we headed into the dunes and set up camp.

Our camera ended up with sand in the shutter which created some interesting shots.

Even our dog Helen came with us. She had a blast running around the dunes, but mostly liked the shade.

We were happy with a little shade too.

Sand dunes for as far as the eye could see.

The view above our site.

 

Up...

and over.

It's like a big sand box for big kids.

M. in the sand.

H. in the sand.

Friends in the sand.

No dark clouds, just sand in the shutter.

A desert lizard.

There was kite flying...

...a game of American football...

....a water gun fight...

 

and standing around, taking in the view. 

Somewhere in there we also played a bunch of frisbee and drove all over the dunes. Dune bashing feels like a cross between cross country skiing, down hill skiing and a roller coaster. It was a ton of fun, but difficult to capture in a photo. Even the girls got a chance to drive on flatter ground.

Then our day got even better. There was a camel station at the bottom of the dunes that we had driven by on the way in. After we had been having fun for a few hours, a truck drove up from the station and started talking in Arabic to one of the few people in our group that is a native Arabic speaker. At first we were thinking the guy wanted us to get off of his sand dunes, but in fact he was inviting us to come down to his camel farm, help with the camel milking, and try some fresh milk. This was way too good an opportunity to pass up.

The camel station.

The handsome leader of the pack.

The babies got milk first. There were three babies and two moms.

Even baby camels get milk blister lips.

The camel handler got things set up.

Someone got creative with the photos due to the broken shutter.

More milking.

Close up detail. Let's hope the baby camels got enough of the milk for themselves. 

(I think they did.)

Must get that shutter fixed.

The kids filled up several big bowls like this.

And then we got to taste is, as fresh as it gets. The milk was frothy and white and tasted sweet and delicious. Apparently it's more nutritional than cow's milk and lactose free. We're all talking about opening up a coffee shop with camel lattes, camelcinnos, and camel milk shakes. Hope to see you there!