Update #2 from Dubai – Boxing Day – Al Ain

Xmas day was a wonderful day with our Dubai family. Christmas day is a public holiday in Dubai. The weather is almost perfect, about 26 Degrees. The only down side is the intense haze that seems to be a permanent fixture of the atmosphere at this time of the year. While the haze appears to be mainly moisture in the air it does not feel oppressively humid. On Boxing Day we headed out for a 120km drive to Al Ain which is in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and on the border with Oman. Amazingly you do not have to be very far from Dubai before the quite amazing sand hills dominate the view from the car. The road to Al Ain is four lanes in each direction with a 120 km/hr speed limit and a tolerance of 20km/hr. Hence the traffic, is travelling at 140km/hr and there were no opportunities to get any really good photos of the landscape. Hopefully this will change when we head off into the sand hills for a Safari later in our stay. We headed to Al Ain to look, firstly at the country side and secondly to visit a more traditional city that had not been overtaken by modern hi rise and foreigners.

Mount Jebel Hafeet -Al Ain

Mount Jebel Hafeet is just outside Al Ain and is the only mountain range in the Emirates.  Also the site of a couple of palaces for local Sheiks to escape the heat of summer when it gets close to 50 Deg C.

Palaces – Summer homes for the very rich on top of Mount Jebel Hafeet

After visiting Mount Jebel Hafeet we decided it was time for lunch.  This was always going to be an adventure with three young children in tow.  After parking the car in Down Town Al Ain we headed through the back streets and found a friendly enough looking “Restaurant”.

The proprietor and the four customers, I think, were a little gob smacked to see a white bloke with 2 women and 3 kids, all westerners enter their domain. The proprietor seemed to be a little embarrassed as he could not speak a word of English and women in the area were obvious by there absence.  Well with a lot of sign language we eventually got a meal for all of us with some interesting unknown dishes.  The entire feast cost us the princely sum of 39 Dirham. (about A$10).

After lunch we headed off to view a fort built in the 1890’s by Sheikh Zahed Bin Khalifa,  Zahed the First, a highly regarded ruler of the time and grandfather to the current ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Jahili Fort

The fort is made entirely of mud and straw, and due to the subterrain being all sand it requires no foundations.  Even the pave areas under foot are made entirely of mud and straw.

Jahili Fort

By the time we had finished at the fort the kids were starting to get a little restless so we headed back to Dubai, only 120km and at 140km/hr quite a quick trip.

End Update #2