We have been dieing to go camping but have been busy with kid stuff and Larry's work schedule. We finally found a good time to go. Camping season is in the winter here otherwise it is just too HOT! We went with our neighbors Megan & Bruce and Nigel & Zoe and their kids. It was a ton of fun. I hope that we can go at least one more time before it gets too hot. For sure we will go a lot more next winter.
We headed out of the compound around 9:30am on Friday. The plan was to go to Hatta Pools (where the border rolls back and forth between the UAE and Oman). But we got there and there were too many people and too many flies. So we opted to head to the shore - which wasn't too far away if we drove through Oman. However that meant that we would need to go through a
proper border crossing. We thought what the heck, let's give it a shot. So off we went. Leaving the UAE was not an issue, but once we got to the Omani side... well the line for visas looked to be about 3 hours long. That would NOT work with 6 kids in tow. So back over the border we went. We arrive back at the UAE border post and are told to go back. You can't enter the UAE with an exit stamp but no entry stamp from the other side. Thank goodness that Nigel was able to negotiate with the border guards that we were not going to wait 3 hours to get that entry stamp for Oman. They finally just cancelled our UAE exit stamp and we were allowed to leave.
Now we had to stay within the UAE to get to the coast, which was farther, but took much less time then getting a visa in Oman! Thru the long drive the kids were bored of course. Below are some pictures of Dani and Elle entertaining themselves in the car.
Elle made a fort while Dani opted to make some paper earings and make goofy faces. :)
Dani used the wax from the cheese to make a face on her strawberry Fanta bottle, which is her favorite drink here.
Once we got to the coast we stopped to check out this truck that had apparently driven right into the water. Crazy drivers! You see weird stuff like this all of the time here. You gotta serious wonder what people are thinking. A huge tractor was pulling in as we were leaving to try to get the truck out.
FISH GUTS...
While driving around looking for a camp site we came across a marshy area. Luckily we were not in the lead at thisp point. Bruce lead the way thru millions of little dead fish (it took a few minutes to realize that is what they were however.) At the time is was pretty funny... until we got home and had to clean the mess. The photo is of the fish guts lodged in the wheel well of Bruce's SUV.
Some pretty mountains along the drive. After all this driving we figured we would have a nice party at the camp site later! It was after 3pm before we got to a site.
Snoopy rock, so called because it looks like Snoopy sleeping on his dog house (sorta anyway). There is great snorkeling in this area, but we didn't bring our gear because this was not the original plan, next time!
This is our camp site. Dani and Elle burying themselves in the sand after helping set up camp.
Cooking some dinner on the open fire. We need to get one of these tripod... very cool contraption.
Nitetime at the campsite.
Sunrise. Just beautiful!
We got to see some local fisherman bring in a big catch. It took them a long time to hall in these enourmous fish nets. They caught 3 sea turtles in the mix. Thank goodness they set them free. Dani was able to get a video of one of them swimming back out to sea.
The kids found several dead crabs along the sand so they decided to make a crab cemetery.
Crab awaiting burial. Elle, Dani and Sadi working on the cemetery.
Elle, Dani and Rudi finishing up the cemetery and then the finished master piece.
Some interesting dessert trees on the drive home.
On the way home we stopped at a big liquor store. It is in a different emirate so you don't have to pay the 30% tax. We might have to make a field trip out that way again sometime soon.
