Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Because I know you visit this blog to catch-up on our family happenings and adventures and not to be bombarded with my photography hobby pics (also known as grandparents want to see Piper and Frankie not your personal indulgences Carly), I have started a separate tumblr website for all of my non-family photography. If you want to follow my new website you can find it here.  

Europe Road Trip - Part 3

My last post was written shortly after Naz and Piper departed for a month in Australia leaving me sad and lonely on the other side of the world. Since then a lot has happened.

48 hours after they departed and completely, coincidentally, I was required to head to Melbourne to work for 3 weeks, you can only imagine how much I needed to stop and consider that request. Given I was originally supposed to be working in Washington for August a change to Melbourne and a chance to catch-up with family and friends was a very welcome change.

So with travel and work commitment I have not blogged in over 4 weeks and here we are now in September.
We are all together back in Dubai but as usual life is never boring. We move house this coming weekend, the new school year started today and I have hit the 30 week mark (all healthy but feeling very pregnant now).

I have posted up some final pics below from our European holiday (which seems so long ago). I will be back later this week with some Piper school pics and a baby update x

One of our favourite discoveries - Lake Achansee, Austria. We cycled 20km around the lake this day (this pregnant mumma needed a rest day the next day).

Piper decided on this holiday clothing was optional.... no matter where we were! This was our lunch stop on our bike ride.

Cycling - Lake Achansee, Austria

Lunch in the most beautiful city ever - Salzburg, Austria

Posing in the square at Mozart's museum - Salzburg, Austria

Streets of Salzburg

Walchansee, Switzerland - stunning rural town

Walchansee, Switzerland

Zurich Switzerland - beautiful but wowsers, most expensive city I have visited!

Triberg Falls, Black Forest - Germany - this hike tested my preggy belly!

Munich

Munich, Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden - sausages and pretzels for lunch of course!

Europe Road Trip - Part 1

Our European adventure is almost over but I will break up our pics over a couple of posts.

We are currently in Munich after finishing up our mobile home cruising and camping. Over the last couple of weeks we have travelled across Germany, explored the Alps via Austria, Lichtenstein and Switzerland, accidentally visited France and Luxembourg and found our way back to Germany.

Lastly but most importantly our little Piper turned 4 while we were on the road! 

One our favourite towns discovered in our first week - Landberg am Lech

Birthday Girl - never needs an excuse to wear tulle!  

An accidental visit to Legoland - not part of our plans but we couldn't resist stopping when we came across it. We expected to lose an hour or two...... not 6!

This is one of the tamer rides, we discovered later in the day Piper has a love of roller coasters and speed! Unfortunately these signs below prevented me from taking part in case I harm my legless, armless lego baby!

Birthday cake road trip style!

Outside our motor home ready to hit the road on Birthday day!

Desert Camping Adventure - The Empty Quarter

Naz returned to Dubai last Wednesday and I don't think Piper and I have ever been happier to see him.

However, rather than take things slowly and relax, in true O'Brien style we planned a road trip and camping adventure for the weekend.

We ventured to The Empty Quarter, a unique desert area at the northern tip of the UAE bordered by UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen. It is a vast desert, home to some of the worlds largest sand dunes, approximately a three drive from Dubai (unless you have a toddler who needs to pee every half hour).

We travelled with friends, one of who had befriended a local man on a previous camping trip. We contacted Salem and he was only too happy to meet up with us crazy bunch of expat's and show us around. This kind man led us into the desert, took us to a friends camel farm, tested our 4WD driving skills before finally leading us off road into the dunes to the most secluded and beautiful camping spot.

It is quite rare to share such intimate time with local Emirate's. For the most part expatriates and locals lead very separate lives. But Salem was welcoming and engaging. While the boys set-up camp he took myself and two other friends in his car for a bash through the dunes, it was horrifying and exhilarating at the same time!

Not sure this desert has ever seen a little poodle from Australia before!

Fireside conversations

Sand boarding

My favourite pic - cars on the left, friends up on the dune and the boys sand boarding

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

Triple triathlon in the desert?

This weekend Naz and some friends competed in the Wadi Adventure Triple Triathlon in Al Ain.
A triple triathlon is - 350m swim in a man made wadi (dam), 7km bike leg followed by 1.5km run then repeated 3 times. This makes for a lot of transitions and hard work for competitors but meant Piper and I were able to see Naz several times during the race in quick succession and follow his progress easily.

Unfortunately to beat the heat the race started at 7am with entry roads in closed from 6:30am and Al Ain is in another Emirate so it was a 4:30am start for our drive from Dubai!
But it was all worth it! Naz's swim training is paying off and he really enjoyed the triathlon and to top it off finished 19th overall!!

The location the triathlon was held is also home to a man made wave pool which pumps out genuine 3.5 metre waves for surfing..... in the middle of the desert! Naz and a friend Brett have been travelling here for a weekly surf so I will post a separate blog post on this another day.

Pre race cuddle

Start of the race



Waiting for a high five from her Daddy

Another high five!



Cheering on the competitors





Running across the finish line with her Daddy - she was so excited to run in the race and won a pair of shoe laces at the presentation for her efforts!