Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
The desert here is amazing, dark orange dunes that seem to go on forever. The undulating landscape is so soothing to gaze at, simply breathtaking. We all rode camels and were mermerized by the landscape. The boys were especially excited about riding on the camels, they couldn’t believe how tall they were. It was a little scary when we stood up on it and then sat down, I thought I would fall off and the boys just giggled. Climbing the sand dunes was a real challenge! Very good exercise but tiring! The boys spent a few hours dune surfing, just like snow boarding but on sand. They both got hurt a few times, face plants taught them real quickly! Every twenty minutes or so I would look down from the dune I was on and see one of them lying prone so I’d have to yell down and ask if they were okay, I’d get a feeble “yes, just tired”! As long as they were alive I just let them keep going. We watched sunset from a very high dune and the colors were amazing, the dark oranges, golds and tans against the milky blue sky was spectacular. We took so many pictures and the lighting was amazing. We went to fetch the boys and their faces were brown with white areas where they touched their sweaty faces, they looked soooo funny! They were a mess, coughing the sand out of their throats and asking for water. I gave Grant water and then he got down on all fours and just started throwing up! So needless to say I had to carry his stuff back….Rowan wasn’t much better, they had no energy left in their bodies! But they said it was awesome. We washed all the sand off them, it was everywhere-100 times worse than the beach! Then got cleaned up for dinner. We sat in the traditional Bedouin style with low tables surrounding a center stage outside. We ate delicious local food while listening to Arabic music by a man playing an oud. Then dinner ended with belly dancing, that was lots of fun to watch. Arabic coffee and dates were a nice finish to dinner as they turned out all the lights and everyone just sat back quietly and looked at the heavens. Of course I had to point out all the planets and constellations (quietly), they were so bright they jumped out at you. Venus and Mars were prominent on either side of the waxing crescent moon while the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, Orion and the usual circumpolar constellations were present as well. A very peaceful end to the evening.
