Geocaching - 21-24 December, 2009

We did seven geocaches on our trip to Oman. The pictures below are of the first one we did, which also happened to be Nana and Grandad's first one. We had a lot of fun finding it. The coordinates were off and as it turns out Nana had pegged where it was as we passed it. Oh well, we had fun exploring, and climbing the rocks looking for it. :)

There was a small one (film canister) for one of them which was neat because it was far into the rock wall and Patrick pulled it out with the attached wire (below). I also got to find one because the final part of the climb was tricky. Patrick was disappointed because he couldn't do it. It was on a small ledge and tucked into one of the holes behind a goat's skull. I wasn't too keen on touching the skull but hey I did it for the kids. :)

We also found our first nano-cache (below). That was a hard find, it took a while to find it. The find went to Wayne that time. Now we know what a nano looks like which made it a lot easier for Samantha to find the last one of the trip.

Our plans are to keep on finding them. There are lots here in the UAE and Oman as well as bunch in Dubai - maybe we will make a day of just geocaching in the New Year.

Tour of Oman II - 21-24 December, 2009

The next morning after our Oman tour, we headed to Al Ain- YES once again we piled into the truck for MORE driving! :) We saw the country side - sand and more sand. There was a geocache stop at Fossil Rock. Then we made it to Al Ain, for another windy drive up the mountain side. We stayed at our favourite hotel on Jebel Hafeet.

Once checked in, we had a little lunch and got our bathing suits on. The kids wanted to take Nana and Grandad down the waterslides. I caught them on video! :) So I have one picture for you of Nana, Grandad and Wayne chill-laxing at the swim up bar. Then there is one video of the waterslides. ENJOY!

Tour of Oman - December 21-24,2009

We decided to go for a little tour of the Northern Emiraites. So we headed off on the morning of the 21st, got lost in Sharjah, but managed to make it to our hotel in the early afternoon without too many hic-ups. Once we dropped our stuff off, we headed out for a geocache find and an explore. We went up this wadi (dried river bed) 'til we came to the Oman border. It was really cool to see, because of the recent rains. You see these trees growing on this mound of gravel and everything around it has been washed away. The wadis were quite wide. The wild life we found were GOATS. Hundreds of them all over the place, eating whatever they can find. We found one in the garge bins, on top of vechiles, side of mountains with a very steep incline. Below are a few pictures of the first day. Once we got back to the hotel for the evening, we had a swim in the ocean, saw a crab and collected some shells.

The next morning we got ready fairly early (cause we didn't have any hot water- so showers were very quick :) ) and headed out for more exploring. We did all the boring border stuff - fairly easily and then we were in Oman. The border town was neat. There were cows and goats walking the streets holding up traffic. We thought we better be careful and not hit one of the cows or we would be in big trouble.

We stopped at an ancient fort. Unfortunately the fort was locked up. We were able to peek in a few of the barred windows. Once we checked out the fort we started looking for our geocache. While looking we found all kinds of fossils and neat layered rocks. The view from the fort was quite something. Nana and Grandad are checking it out (left picture) and then the right picture is the view.

We continued on our drive, admiring the views. It was a twisty, windy road right between the ocean and the mountains. At some points the rock looked like it was going to slip off and crash on the road. We decided to stop at a beach for a little leg stretch and some lunch. The beach was cool. It was a shell beach - not much sand but mostly crushed sea shells. It was a nice break.

After lunch we headed into the mountains, through the wadi. They were doing some major construction on the road, so maybe by next year there will be a paved road for some of it. Considering the roads were in the wadi they were really quite good. We were expecting to have to do some 4x4ing. We climbed up and up and up. In about an hour's time we went from 0 ft elevation to 2900 ft elevation. It was quite the climb, with some awesome views. At one point in our climb we came across a place where there were a few houses/shacks with some terraced land for crops and more goats.

We found some rock formations that kind of formed little shelters. I guess they are for the herders when they are rounding up the goats. We would find them through the mountains. Sometimes you really had to look for them.

The next stop was to stretch our legs and was the turning around point for us. You could tell that it was the waterfall course for when it rained (picture on the right). All the rocks were well rounded and it was a different type of bedrock. There were some kettles forming as well. You could follow the course all the way to the top. The final picture below (bottom left) is on our way down again. You can just see the little village at the base of the mountains (little white blob) and the windy road down. I think when we got the bottom Wayne got out and kissed the ground. :)

On our way back out of the wadi we took one more detour. Up the mountain and then down a bit to look at the fjord. Wow what a sight! We didn't stay long because we wanted to get out of the mountains and to drive some of the windy road before dark. So we will have to go back again for further exploring and to go higher up the mountain, and maybe even d0 some camping! :)

GOOD NIGHT!!!

Merry Christmas - December 20, 2009

We have put up our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. It actually doesn't look that bad once you have the lights on and you squint to get them to sparkle :) The kids have loved it. Every day they check it out and want to close the curtains so that they can put the lights on.

We would like to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS from Abu Dhabi.

Tourists in Abu Dhabi- December 20, 2009

Well our visitors have been here a week and where has the time gone? Nana and Grandad did some exploring of the downtown while everyone else was at work/school. Patrick and Samantha took them in to show their classes and for the winter concert. Thank goodness the concert is over- Samantha will maybe stop singing "Jingle Bells". Ha! Fat chance!! :)

We went to the Grand Mosque on Thursday. Once again, it was awe inspiring. Don't we look lovely in our togs.
On Saturday, we went to the Heritage Village; what a neat place. They had set up a sample of homes in a fishing village, homes in a farming community, museum - with jewerly, clothes, photos, dishes, swords, buildings with some samples of the crafts - leather, shell inlay, swords, perfumes, pottery, camels, Arabian horses. Nana and Grandad found the dhow boats. Go figure! :) Patrick got to try out his hand at making a vase (Sophie, you would've been proud!)
This next week we are headed out for a little tour of the northern Emirates and into Oman. It should be a pretty awesome drive (if a bit nerve wracking). Checking out Google Earth there are a lot of switch-backs with the edge of the ocean on one side and the mountain face on the other. We will post photos when we come back.

13 December - A Flood in Abu Dhabi?

It poured, and poured, and poured... There is nothing like 12 hours of solid driving rain in a desert city with little to no stormwater infrastructure to make a mess of things.

Check out these YouTube videos (Video1, Video2), both of which were taken right outside of our Apt. building. All and all it was an exciting day of driving - Beastor needs a bath!

We picked up Nana & Grandad at the airport. The kids made a banner and ran to them giving flying hugs as they came out the doors as a surprise. It was a late night for everyone but well worth it - even if they were cranky today [uh - the kids I mean :) ].

It's "raining" in Abu Dhabi - 11 December, 2009

Just a short note today. This morning it was spitting a bit, so the kids and Wayne went up to the roof to go swimming in the rain. They came back down after a very short swim shivering and with their teeth chattering away. I guess it was very windy and cold on the roof since it was so dark out due to the clouds. The rain also didn't last very long this morning.

So we spent the day getting ready for our first visitors to Abu Dhabi. The kids were great through the shopping and cleaning, so we decided to go out for supper. On our way there it started to spit again. So it rained twice today! The kids were very excited about the whole thing and wanted me to post it on the blog to let everyone know that it does rain here. :)

We are all excited about Nana and Grandad coming for a visit in 2 days! We got a little Charlie Brown fake tree (a measly 5 feet tall), and some decorations for it. We will probably put that up when Nana and Grandad get here.