Road trip - Jebel Shams, Oman

Ramadan is officially over and life is getting back to normal.

I am scared to 'type' this out loud but the weather has even felt cooler the last two days. Last night it got to a low of 34 degrees, so all fingers are crossed the heat is over and winter is on its way.

The end of Ramadan brings with it Eid celebrations and several public holiday. These holidays are not officially announced until the evening before Eid begins. UAE residents were given 2 public holidays.... sounds generous, however, all of our neighbouring countries (Saudi, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain) were given a week off so it was a little disappointing.

To make the most of a four day weekend and escape the oppressive heat we headed off on a road trip to explore the mountains of Oman in an area known as Jebel Shams.

A friend who also joined us for the road trip recommended this route and camping location, assuring us despite our hesitation that it was an easy drive and would definitely be cooler temperatures.

Well he got the cooler temperatures right. Jebel Shams camp is 2000m above sea level and the peak is 3000m. The nights were cool enough to throw on a jumper and light a camp fire.

As for the easy drive.... not so right. Firstly it was approx 7 hours each way including toilet breaks and border crossings (we had 3 adults, Piper and Lily in the car).
It was an extremely steep climb and took some time to get up the mountain itself. It had been raining and some of the 4WD driving was a little hair raising. In fact at one point on our scenic drive the next day I freaked out on a steep descent and opted to get out and walk (brought back lots of childhood memories Dad).

It was a great break and another Oman road trip is in the works for later in the year.

Our Bedouin tent - we glamped it a bit and stayed in this instead of taking our tent

Walking through a little village on the start of our hike

There were goats everywhere just waiting to be terrorised by Lily

On our hike looking back at  the cliff
wondering where the path was and how the hell we just walked around
that with a toddler and poodle!

Naz doing 'hero' poses. Don't worry Liz there was a big ledge beneath him x

Like father like daughter, my little daredevil rock climber

Weekend Camping Trip

Last weekend we embarked on a camping trip with friends. Originally we planned on heading to the Empty Quarter down near Saudi Arabia, however, on Friday we woke to one hell of a sand storm! So camping in the middle of the world's largest sand desert was certainly not going to be a good idea.
We revised our plan gathered up our passports and drove north accross the UAE to the northern most point of Oman and camped at a beach called Dibba. Thankfully Dibba is surrounded by mountains and cliff faces so we were quite sheltered, unfortunately a lot of people had the same plan so it was a busy little camping hole.
Dibba is small Omani town on a large bay, popular for it's beach and sand dune 4 wheel driving fun. As the crow flies it is only approximately 60 kms from Iran across the Strait of Hormuz (which goes somewhat to explaining the strange night sky activities, no heart attacks please Nanna's we were safe).

Naz and the boys had purchased a sand board in preparation for the Empty Quarter so they were more than happy to test it out at Dibba. We also kept ourselves amused with lots of swimming, sand castle building, beach cricket, mountain climbing (although the O'Briens only made it half way up the mountain..... it was difficult carrying Piper and then Lily decided she was going no further and dug her little paws in).
As much as Piper loved running around the beach and swimming nudie rudie for a weekend I think the happiest O'Brien of all was Lily! She swam, rolled in the sand and dug her little heart out.

Sunrise - 'thanks Piper for making sure we were awake early and did not miss it'

Piper, Lily and Laura

Mornng sand board and play in the dunes 'best friends'

Yes that is a streaker on the cricket pitch!

I think her favourite thing about camping was swimming and playing nudie rudie

Aargh still having camera issues. Mountain climbing.

February Photo a Day Challenge - Week 1

For the month of February I am participating in a fun photo challenge put together by the blogger 'fat mum slim' you can check out her blog here http://www.fatmumslim.com.au/

I shared this challenge with a friend and it has been fun checking in daily to see what we have each posted, it has also given an insight into each others daily lives while we are so far away.
So I have decided for the month of February I will post up my photo challenge images on a weekly basis here so I can share them with you all.
 I hope you like and gives you a different view into our lives in the middle east. If anybody else is also participating in the challenge please post a comment and share your photo's!

1. Your view today - I worked from home as Naz was in Abu Dhabi working, this is my balcony office! 

This is what my view normally looks like at the office, this was taken at thebeginning of a sandstorm the next day.

2. Words - Taken at the entrance to the Palace Hotel, this is a shortcut we take to get to the mall. Words are in arabic.

3. Hands - Don't you love those little hands stuffing her face while camping in Oman on the weekend.

4. A Stranger - What luck for my photo challenge today! Omani locals helped us out of a tight spot at Dibba Beach, Oman on the weekend when a friend got bogged. Note for the O'Briens - we will not be buying a jeep!

5. 10am - In a cab on my way to a client meeting

6. Dinner - oops I was so hungry and had a really bad day at work so entirely forgot about the photo challenge until after I had eaten my dinner! Sweet potato mash and yummy steak!

Roadtrip to Oman

This weekend we hired a car for a road trip to Oman. 'Road trip' also being code for Visa Run. Our 30 day visitors visa's are about to expire and Naz and Piper will not receive their residency papers for another week.

The closest point of Oman is a 2 hour drive from Dubai. Rather than just drive 2 hours get our stamps and u-turn back over the border we decided to do some exploring and make an adventure out of the trip.

The UAE-Oman border is on a mountain line and is an amazing region. It was a beautiful change of landscape to the constant sand desert surrounding Dubai. We had planned on advice from friends to drive into the mountains to finds some wadi's (natural spring rock pools) for an afternoon of swimming. However as we had hired a sedan and not a 4WD we changed our minds on seeing the area and will leave that for another trip.
Instead we explored a beautiful town called Hatta and visited Hatta Fort and the Heritage Village.
The landscape and mountains were breathtaking and the locals extremely friendly. Perhaps too friendly as we naively followed a super friendly gentleman's instruction on where to go for a walk to a natural spring and gardens only to have him pop up on us and insist we go with him to his shanty for a drink of water..... very awkward moments followed once we got there as we didn't want to offend his kindness but there was no way we were going inside that building.
Below are some photograph's from our little'road trip'. We can't wait to drive the 5 hours to the capital of Oman, Muscat sometime in the next few months.

Never ending sand. We couldn't get a photo as we were driving but we saw literally 100's of camels during our drive roaming the sand dunes on the side of the road.

Ummm show your passports?