GR5 now 3

Now we are three, Martin and John left for NZ today and the arms of loved ones, and no doubt the icy embrace of a cutting Southerly howling in across Cook Strait, to greet them as they alight from the plane in Wellington. 45 degrees it won't be, good luck guys. It was a sad drive back from Dubai, my work, pool and drinking buddies actually on the way home. What to do? Some how I don't think Alvin will be the same, nice guy and all, but there's not the history.

Smoking!!

John enjoying a wee puff on the Sheesa Pipe and brewing up a storm. He was as bit seedy later - not sure if it was something he ate or if it was too much to drink .... or the smoke.

Where'd he go?

John had heard that there were Minataur beatles to be found under hedges! All he found was two empty water bottles and an empty fag pack. Better luck next time John.

Where's Wally?

Well Julia and Colleen may not have found Wally but they seem to think they have found his Office, being a Friday nobody was home.

Fishing anybody?

We visited Sohar on the Oman coast and John decided he would like to go fishing in this traditional fishing boat. It's made from palm leaves tied together. I don't know how sea worthy it is but John wouldn't wait for the tide to come in so we didn't find out, something to do with reading a library book, so he said.

Jebel Hafeet

Mt (Jabel) Hafeet rises out of the desert floor and rises about 1350' pretty well straight up, giving spectacular views of Al Ain and the surrounding desert, from grasslands, green parks to rocky ridges and red sand desert expanses.

Desert Oasis

Just a little green spot in the middle of Al Ain, a local Oasis next to a wadi.

Desert Driving

Now you think we would have learnt that sand and Toyota vans just don't go together. Well you're wrong I had already got the van stuck once a couple of days earlier and that took us twenty minutes to get it out. But on this day with a van load of fridges, tv's and washing machines we inspected the surface and decided it was safe to drive on, Ha! the end result was a lot of sweat and two hours later we got towed out. We have now learnt do not under any circumstances drive on the sand you will get stuck.

You want to What??

Seems it not as easy as one would expect to dispose of somebody here, although this was a grave yard it looked more like a bomb site or a cemetery out of a western movie, a few small headstones and no grass just sand and dust.

Dubai Shopping

Colleen still found time to shop, we found some Souq's and this little gem of Aladdins Cave with all sorts of stuff to interest just about everybody.

The Al Arab Burj

Dubai's famous seven star hotel reuptably the tallest hotel in the world and where Tiger Woods tee'd off from on the helicopter pad and a game of tennis was also played there. Unfortunately for us the day was not very clear temperature in the mid 40's and humidity in the region of 80 - 90%. It was not much fun being outside.

Dubai

This building (Tower) is still under construction and will on completion be reputedly the tallest structure in the world, unfortunately we didn't have any data to confirm this but it is never the less very impressive.

They do Care.

This is what a few Dirhams tip to the house keeping boy gets you, all cleverly made from two towels.

Cell Phone Tower

Perhaps they can take a leaf out of the UAE book and be creative like this for local cell phone towers, note the aerials poking out the top of the palm tree.

It Does Snow Here

We drove to Dubai on the weekend and Martin was going to go skiing, but he had to shelve idea as it was expensive and the queues were huge. This little ski field is situated in the Emirates Mall supposedly one of the biggest in the world.

Time Out

Martin and I spotted this guy the other day and just thought it was too good to miss. It was about 10am and he was having a wee kip just like all good road workers do. When he realised we had stopped to take a couple of photos he leaped out of his comfortable resting place looked quite concerned and got busy working again, we drove off laughing I think he was worried he was going to be in trouble for shirking.

Al Ain

Al Ain even the camels are different, Colleen took and real shine to this guy but he just wasn't interested. Anyway Al Ain is very different, a city of about 400 thousand close to the Oman border, quieter and less busy than Abu Dhabi and Doha although the driving is just as frantic. We have been busy setting up apartments for all the new comers arriving from N.Z, setting up furniture, making beds and hanging curtains, the apartments are all new and five star in comparison to Doha.

We have arrived!!

Look out Abu Dhabi we have arrived, firmly ensconced at the Novotel in the down town area or so we thought. We got time to enjoy just the one night and it's off to Al Ain for a few days to help out over there. Al Ain is 1.5hrs drive away, so we were told to pack up and go that our expertise was required there, so without the time to look around we were off.

Out we go!

Here we are at Doha International Airport, all set to fly to Abu Dhabi and the next phase of our adventures. These guys don't travel lightly and 200 kilograms of luggage has already been freighted ahead. Anyway they have managed to reduce the load to a bag each, Colleen and I still had 29 kilo's between us plus carry on bags. We flew Etihad Airlines (National Airline of the UEA), would say they are very good. Twenty five minute flight, nice!!

Last meal?

Well here we are in this quaint Arabic Restaurant down in the Souqs for our last night night out in Doha before we fly to Abu Dhabi in the morning. Note to self something more European in Cuisine may have been better. I tried a chicken dish call Madagog, sounded good but when delivered looked like baby food tasted like concrete and sat like concrete for two days. Some of the others were luckier and theirs was a little more conventional. All in all it was ok.