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!