First holidays

I’ve been working in Dubai already 9 months and apart from two or three days at the beginning, because driving school or so, I haven’t had proper holidays. So when my brother Jan told me that he had time to come for two weeks, I said what everybody in my position should say “Screw the job, there are more important things and anyway…they will handle a week without me J”

On Thursday I managed with some extra effort to finish everything, instruct everybody what to do and I left with a good conscience, which made sure I would enjoy my vacations.

The plan was clear. Both Jan and his girlfriend Jana were seeking active relaxation and adventure, so right the first day I took them to my secret beach to learn kitesurfing. Jan showed up as a natural talent so he could be on the board right the first afternoon, but the “nice” UAE weather was just too much for them. Even Jan’s giant enthusiasm wasn’t enough to overpower the heat so he spent a big while under the umbrella thinking “Do I die today or tomorrow?”J

Next two days also on the beach nobody died, because as it is all the time, they enjoyed it that much, that they got quickly used to desert conditions. A bit pity was that Jana didn’t try that much, because with her 55 kilos she always felt a bit overpowered and she didn’t have the confidence…also because her injured ankle. But I think it was because I’m bad kite instructor L

Anyway…after three days of kiting we were enough toasted that we had to change the subject. So we started a road trip around UAE. First we went to Umm Al Quwain to buy some refreshment, because three Czechs have a high consumption of certain refreshing drinks!!

We hid everything to smuggling boxes inside the car and hit the road to Wadi Tawaian. Somewhere there should have been some nice climbing, but the only information I had about it was a rough location on Google maps!! With GPS we ended up in a mountain road with high rocks on one side and deep wadi on the other. There was no chance to find it unless we would explore the surroundings in 45°C.”Even if we find it, do we actually want to climb there?” we asked ourselves and then hopped back into air-conditioned car and continued to Dibba and Wadi Bih in Oman.

We had to embarrassingly cross the border three times, because I cleverly forgot to take petrol and in that part of Oman there is no gas station! But after a couple of amused smiles from border soldiers we continued to wilderness. Same direction as with my mom when she was here, same stunning passage and view, only there was no rain in the air and we went deeper into the wadi after the Omani border post.

We drove up the Emirati border post just to see what we already knew, that nobody can pass, except locals of course J and returned to camp back to the wadi. We found a nice spot with some bouldering possibilities, but nobody was really eager to climb in 40°C. “Let’s have a beer until it’s still cold” I said, “And more beers we drink, better sleep we’ll have” added Jan and opened one smuggled Indian 7.2% Kingfisher lager. After a while became dark and boulder was no longer an option. But as we kept drinking our supplies around midnight we got an excellent idea “Let’s shine with the car on the wall and climb!!”. Because of still 38°C outside nobody was thinking about sleeping so getting tired by physical activity sounded like the best option.

And it really was after an hour and the last cold beer we hit the ground where we stood slept until morning. Well…morning...up to 6am, because it was already too hot for further sleeping. So we quickly packed ourselves to the car and back to Dibba. On the way to our planned destination was clear that we cannot do this another day and that we have to break our 3 day roadtrip to more 1 day rides and sleep in Dubai. When we got back to UAE, sweat, dusty and tired we just parked under the tree and got two hours of missing sleep with engine whispering and AC running J

With a bit clearer heads minds we continued our quiet journey to Madam where we rented quadbikes and cheered us up by riding up and down ok high dunes. Definitely exciting experience for engine lovers like us, but driving without destination gets a nit boring after a while, so next time…from A to B 10km through the desert J

The next day was already Thursday and after a decent sleep up to like 11am we started our massive drive west. First to Jebel Hafeet. Emiratis evidently like to built paved roads to nowhere just for local people to have a destination when Land Cruising. Same is Jebel Hafeet. 1100m high, dry mountain with three lane access road, hotel and gardens, huge parking lot and lousy kiosk on he top. View basically none because of fog, but during winter has to be cool…why would they build all this then, right? J

After that our goal was some light desert driving, so we took a long road along Oman border to a point where a desert sand road to Liwa should be. After 100km we came to a lost city of …… before a police station 90km further where the track starts. We filled the tank and it took us 40 minutes to get to a gate there. Of course it was closed, of course I didn’t have pink UAE soldier ID card and of course we had to go back. 30 minutes later…”Full special please” I asked the guy at the petrol station and he replied with a smile “Yes sir”.

We couldn’t go the shortest way, so we had to take another shortcut through the desert. This time we were lucky and no gate stopped us from an easy warm-up at 10m wide maintained dirt road. The thing which stopped us was the road 10km further! Maintained road stopped at a camel farm and further continued only a track in the sand winding between the dunes interrupted be short pieces of hard salt plains.

And a dilemma came. “Should we go forward or turn back?”, “Let’s drive a bit and see how it goes” I said. We drove another 100 meters, stopped at the salt plain and started to think again. We didn’t know how far we have to go like this. The track looked easy, but we could quickly get into some tricky part and get stuck. We were alone, with a not real 4x4 in summer, when I’ve been told that the sand is dry and softer than in winter. Also I didn’t have yet much experience, what all I can do with my Tiguan. “I would go back” Jan said. I wasn’t sure, because I saw another camel farm 2km away. “I would go” Jana voted and that was the impulse I neededJ. We drove to another salt plain and checked the terrain ahead. I wanted to go a small piece again, but I didn’t trust the road to stop so I drove more and more up to a high dune. Poor scout Jan was left behind, because of lack of my patience J. “I would kill you if you had stopped and got stuck because of me. I don’t mind to walk” smiled Jan.

And we were there at the second camel farm, where there was another dirt road from the other side. We played a small safari photographing camels and moved on. It was getting dark when we found another dirt road we wanted to take, but it was actually not built yet and we saw no tracks going that way. This time it was an easy decision and we followed our previous road 50km to Abu Dhabi and home.

And my first holidays were almost over. On Friday we went climbing to Hatta Crag. Climbing all inclusive. Bit of off-road drive to the base, 500m of steep uphill walk, doing some 6b overhangs and finishing in a typical Pakistani cafeteria in a small town having shawarmas (gyros with salad wrapped in Arabic bread) and tee with milk and sugar. “It was the best place where I have ever climbed” said Jan when driving home. And I felt somehow proud and flattered J

On Saturday we went once more kiting. Jan as easily as he started, that easily he finished his training and was doing long runs across the whole beach. My best student so far!! I also finally got some pictures of me kiting, so I can prove that I haven’t been making all this up ;)

And that was it. My first holidays were over. But I wasn’t sad at all, because after one week in the office I was leaving to Thailand for another week of deserved rest.

It was a good week and everybody enjoyed. I've already heard Jan saying "If in Dubai there is a vehicles oriented university I go to study here right away".

And that's Dubai. It opens your eyes to see that there are different paths you can follow ;)