Dune Bashing Photos

It was like being in a desert race. The experts took offf leaving us to fend for ourselves. We came racing through the dunes and as we came over the top, dip straight down into a hole. no thats not darren its my Principle the only time ill get him to work for me. lol.


Darren and Josh sand surfing. The boys climbing fossil rock, well its was more like a mountain, they are in a crevise. We found teh sall amount of shade for lunch. Everyone gathered to chat and eat a much needed break, from the sand.

Time where does it go

Oh i know in re typing what you've just typed in.... yep i lost it.... here goes

Its been nice to have visitors. please keep coming and spending time, we love it.

What have we been doing? desert bashing, Oman overnight, snorkling and playing.

Desert bashing was an eye openers, camels roaming around, dunes to get stuck in, only about 14 times, bumper bar ripped off along with number plate, shoes missing in sinking sand, we found a fossil at fossil rock, sat and had a wonderful lunch in rich red desert with new found friends, principles and teachers from school.

Jen arrived safe and sound .We had absolutely fantastic time. went toBurj Al Arab (the sail) for Breakfast, wow, it was gorgeous. The three course - 6 star breakfast was out of this world as was our Dubai creek dinner Then shopping for Guchi and prada bags. then out for an arabic dinner, just great, off to the gold market today and thedesert and then a swim at the beach,

Kids enjoy school. They have 9 classes a day, English, Arabic, French, music (nath -recorder, Josh Piano), maths (of course), PE etc etc,Josh is doing hockey and basketball sports afterschool and nath is table tennis and basketball. With yours truly a coach along with the PE teacher a 4 x Olympic tennis player. So they are very tired by the time they get home. Then the enormous amount of homework........busy busy

Poor Josh, Ramandan started on his brithday so no eating in the streets, cafes but we got take away maccas for lunch and ate at home, the darren and the boys went to the snow (i was lazy and went window shopping) . We had three weeks of 8am to 1pm , not 8.30to3pm,hmmm seems people were getting too hungry being outdoors, so they need to sleep earlier in the day and then wake for Ifta (breaking bread - first meal at sunset). the Ramadam timings are all over theplace not use to it yet, no drinking/eating outside ofhome during sunlight hrs. Accidently ate a hot roll atsupermarket, didnt know why people were staring, thena lady said hmmmm its ramadam you know, i said, oh my god, oops.

Mum arrived, we have kept her busy during eid holis she will be glad for us to be back at school. We went overnight to Oman, the tip of UAE and above, just 32 miles from Iran across the Hormus Straight. How beautiful. untouched, clear water, boat riding, shell collecting, snorkelling, just delightful. Then another day snorkelling at snoppy island , this time we swam all the way out , wonderful big colourful fish and coral. Shooting range and archery today for lunch.

Now time to gear up for Ds 40th, hmmm what dare devil gift will I get........stay tune...it will have to be a big one......not that im placing too much pressure on me......

Cheeries

No Bull Deaths,

Bad Typing - oops

Sorry guys, ive re read my stuff and boy, my brain does work faster than my fingers. I hope you can interprete my typing. Touch typing gives me dyslexia. eheheheheh.

Thought i better clarify my humor - No bull deaths@ the Bullfights
oh, and no the bulls only bump heads a few times and then they are separated, the poor guy in the picture below must have passed on from old age or heat exhustion, it was there before the bull fight started - we were a bit shocked and hope it wasn that bad and it wasnt, is was very humane. No blood whatsoever.

to recap :

heres the winner - head high - sometimes the bulls would go back and teese the looser, and chase the looser away - very funny to see.

heres the looser just as they were being separated, see the looser doesnt have any black on him - so cannt be the guy beside the bin... Both are very healthy, but tired, and do a lot of snorting, dribbling and kicking dirt after it. esp the looser

Trip across to Fujairah - Gulf of Oman

Snoopy Island


We sent another busy Friday travelling to the otherside of the emirates to go to Snoopy Isand, near Bidya, for snorkelling, and to check out how cold the water is, hahahaha. I suppose it looks like snoopy lying on his kennel ? Theres Nathan and Josh in front. It was too rough to swim out so we just did some body surfing, the kids loved it. Darren took some time to lie back and enjoy
It was very relaxing and enjoyable and yes the water is cooler on this side of the UAE - yaa. And the waves were high and lots of fun. We got dunked a number of times.





We stayed for a few hours and then head off to Kor Fakkan - very impressed, beautiful beaches and stalls and stalls of fresh fruit and veges, this is also where you can buy carpets. Ill just take a quick photo - always reluctant to stop. Hey want are u doing - not out of the bottle...............
Off to Fujairah - hmmm lets stop look theres bulls everywhere - nup find that new u beaut highway straight quick way home, hmmmmm , where was it, Oh look theres those bulls again, ok lets go and look. A soccor ground, dirt only covered with water, villagers bring in two bulls at a time and they head butt until somebull wins,
The Bull Fights
Ok find a spot -try not to look out of place - hmm only people here in shorts adn blonde - everyone is looking, at leats they are smiling. A toot, ohhh car full of ladies in all the Black trying to see out teh windows, mover over boys, OK Nath u sit with the locals, we'll stand here, wot was that, the crowd split beside us and roped to a tree in arms length a Brahma Bull, norting and kicking, hmm stand clear please.



Hey someone yells get out the way there coming - me - just getting a photo, i could feel darren tugging me - no dont be ridiculus, he has already run off and im standing two feet from the action, everyone around me now gone.
The Winner.............and the looser

Shopping and Mall Of Emirates, Magic Planet

What better thing to do with boys but take them to an indoor festival centre, both Nathan and Josh raced up the rock climbing walls, and had goes on the Claw, machine arm etc etc. While off i went shopping, looking for a gift for my neice who is doing her Deb shortly.

Visting a Mosque

Went off for an adventure today, yes took mums advice went back to the lonely planet and check out things to do, so headed to the only Mosque in UAE to allow visitors.

The boys got a better understanding of the religion that drives this place and an understanding of Ramadan (which can you believe starts on josh birthday!), and they understand the consequences of eating in public during this time, they found it interesting, particularly the washing of the body before entering. I had no idea they had to wash so much of their body.
The mosque was built by the government but was gifted to them by Cairo. It is 1 10th the size and an exact replica of the mosque on the hill in Cairo, I remember going there with my Mum and Dad, it is the same, even the lanterns, just smaller.

The boys were interested in watching the emirate man pray and his stories, they just got bored with peoples questions - I think because we already know the answers about Dubai and UAE. Some twit asked the guide "did he think that women in this religion were oppressed", moron. The guide just looked at him, then said we are equal and they pray as the men do. They enjoy their customs as would you. Well handled I thought.

Wilde Wadi

Wilde Wadie Water Park And at the front enterance

Wilde all right..

Think i nearly killed myself. Well how about a dislocated shoulder, or soemhting like that, hmmm cannt move my neck much , pain shearing down my shoulder into my back, how crazy are we to try to keep up with two boys. Hang on I qued for the knee board rider. How strange not to have a boat pulling you along. U had to lean as far back as possible so the board doesnt flip from underyou and you land on your face - oh yea - thats what happened to me. Darren said it look kinda spectacular. hmmm, it dont feel it today. Sorry no photos of this one,

But here is the wave rider, i loved it. Still crazy but seem to be able to work the board better, Boys couldnt believe how long I stayed on for, what a thrill. They were off in seconds. Great fun, I think you need to know the feeling of surfing, very similar. We are so use to being pulled along by a speed boat, our balance isnt quite right for surfing.

So heres, Josh, Nath, Darren and me, giving it a go

So from there we split up, Josh wanted to ride the largest slide , we walked up, and Darren and Nath anted to ride a tube up and tube a slide, you can see Josh on teh slide and darren and nath waiting to go down the slide. .

Did you find the lizard ?

Its in the top right hand sector, look hard, it took darren and the boys a little time to find it....

Look What I Saw - by Nathan

Nathan's experiences in Dubai



Today i saw the easter bunny,heres a picture. You know that Mcdonalds across the road got robbed.





<----this was the calprite

I checked out a school but it didn't have humans??????

CAN U Find the LIZARD ???

My boys on their bikes

19/8/06 - Hatta and the Wadi

We had an adventurous day Friday. Darren days off and we were going to go to Wild Wadi, but we all have variations of the flu, so I protested. The boys had their school assessments the next day so I didn’t want them worse with the flu.

So I suggested Hatta and the real Wadi. So we headed off about 1230 lunch time. Some people go for the weekend but us Aussies like to do it all in one hit. But only approx 140 kms away.


I had never seen landscape change so vividly. It started as your usual beach sandy colour with tuffs all over the place of weed. All of a sudden, dark red sand and the dunes. Then a little further down the road, rocks and mountains came out of the ground, like dump trucks has just left a pile of boulders. Then the cliffs shot out of the ground, it looked like a meteorite had hit the ground. We were passing through part of Oman, only a small checking point sign for customs on side of road. Just kept on the highway. Then the ground turned a black colour like volcanoes dry lava. It was amazing.









Got to Hatta, it was very hot and dry, we looked about. Very quite, as everything is, during Friday, the Sabbath. Climbed a local picnic hill and got a panoramic view of the area. The kids loved this, running up and down the mountain. They had a race who could make it first, Josh ran along the stairs, round and round and down, while Nathan took a short cut straight down.








From there we set off for Wadi - the dry creek beds in the desert which have water pools in places - yes that’s it the Oasis. Darren was excited, off road and straight through desert rock and mountains, kids were watching futurama in the car and started yelling weeeeeeeee, as the car jerk up over steep inclines and plummeted down. Josh was even holding his hands up in the air like a roller coaster. I hung on, wow, what a ride.

We found the Wadi, but, one family of Indians and a couple of groups of men, Sri Lankans . It seemed we just missed the slaughter and feast of a goat cause the stomach and other bits were there and the end of one leg someone had been chewing on. Hmmm, not nice. Darren wasn’t keen to swim heer so we moved on. We drove onto the dry creek bed and traveled along for a while following the small creek. The ground was all river pebbles and boulders. I found a little spot where the creek that was running with fresh crystal clear water wide but not deep. Yet being so hot it was very refreshing. Darren said still warm, but the wind when you were out made u shiver. hmmmm very nice. I was worried about the car as we had gone over boulders and bottomed out a couple of times. But Darren being the gi-i-joe of 4wd, said no probs.





After our dip we headed back to the main road were we come across some camels ambling along the road. Lucky Darren had slowed that’s, $250,000dirhams if hit...have a look at the picture i'm sure they’re smiling. How cute – but remember they bite.


Those back along the road, passed the most amazing round-a-bout greenness grass I've seen, even at home, perfectly manicured. All the town money must go into that. Through the round-about, desert all around.




The boys wanted to stop this time at 'big red' that’s the sand dune we past on the way, and now for dune bugging - damn no credit cards available and only had 100$dirham in my pocket, enough of 1/2 hr for the boys, they loved it - josh has his number 8 yellow shirt on and Nathan travels behind with his light blue shirt on, see if you can pick them out in the photos.


Darren was bummed - next time mate. See the cars up top of big red, this is where they all come to dune bash in 4 wd. but the Hammers didn’t make it up, so they speed up and down the small ones. The boys finish just before sunsets - 7.30 after their 1 and half hrs - must be because we didn’t haggle about price. And I think the only reason they were told to return because Josh rolled his.


We head home for tea and sleep, ready for our next adventure