Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge: World's toughest challenge?

Question on you now OK? It’s the end of August 2010 and somebody asks you “We do one six day extreme endurance race in December in Abu Dhabi. Some running, mountain bike, sea kayak and climbing. Couple of hundred kilometers. Do you wanna join our team?” What would you say? ;)

This exactly happened to me while sitting comfortably on the beach after relaxing kite session and it was one of my very good Czech friends Jaro who asked. I also knew the other two who were in already and they needed the last guy, another Czech and an Iraqi. Tough decision? Not really J “Wow…it looks amazing!! Count me in” I responded almost without thinking. I just saw a great fun with friends and some physical challenge, which I always wanted to prove to myself!

Easy to get in, but usually just few days later when you start doing some research, you realize that there is much more behind and that it might hurt ;) So what is 2010 Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge about?

Day 1: Short sections of running, canoe and swimming around Abu Dhabi Corniche and Emirates palace. Around 20km total. Transfer to Al Ain by bus followed by another 30km on mountain bike and more 6km running to the Camp 1

Day 2: 20km bike to Jebel Hafeet. Run & Scramble & Climb up and down the 1000m high mountain through dry valleys on the sides and finish in Camp 2

Day 3: Bike 50km on sandy tracks to Liwa Empty quarter and start running & hiking through the desert for around 50km until you stop for 8 hour obligatory rest and camp self-sufficiently in the sand

Day 4: Finish the desert section with another 50km to Camp 3

Day 5: Board a double sea kayak with small sails and go between the islands from Mirfa direction Abu Dhabi for 60km until it gets dark and camp on the deserted island

Day 6: After sunrise finish after another 60km in Abu Dhabi and get medals J

Whole race is also a navigation challenge, because using GPS and compass you have to be collecting checkpoints on the way. Some with given coordinates and the optional ones with just point in the printed Google Earth map!! There are strict time limits and everything is penalized.

Didn’t look that bad on the paper. Especially when I remembered myself doing some hiking with almost 3km of elevation and some 60km long. Running half marathon is also not a problem. I know nothing about kayaking long distance, but I felt pretty confident after I started going to the gym on July this year J So with the next three months of training it would be “Piece of cake” J

But when I considered it deeper and tried running 20km in the sand, I realized that I signed up for something I have basically no experience with. Extreme distances without rest for six consecutive days, team psychic, proper race nutrition…and when I added tons of strictly required and specified equipment which will be checked in technical verifications and when I also saw that this is not a fun challenge at all as I thought a bit, where people go to finish, because of all those professional athletes, iron man world champions and world record holder competing for 230000 US dollars in price money…I felt that I might have done a mistake!!

Luckily we got a sponsor Abu Dhabi Environmental Agency who paid the 2500EUR entry fee for us, so there is not that much at stake apart from our health and pride.

So this is us, ECO-RACERS (from left to right: Milan Seman [Czech], Jaro Prokop [Czech], Yasa Wadhai [Iraq] and myself J)

and only the race itself will tell if we did not take a bite too big to swallow J

Jan's visit Volume 2

There are two types of people. The first ones like “passive relaxation” which is supposed to make you body and mind rest by doing nothing or only by doing little physical and mental demanding activities. I found out that this just doesn’t work for me. After a day of doing nothing or little I feel even more tired physically and with feeling of wasted day in my mind.

Therefore I belong to the other group of people who like “active relaxation” which makes your body even more tired and your mind even more focused, but all this in a different way than in the everyday office life. So you return back refreshed for duty after days of not sitting on a chair and not thinking about who you have to chase today! Not mentioning that you can spend couple of hours showing pictures to your colleagues and have an additional break ;)

My brother Jan has the same opinion about resting, so when I made him come to visit me to UAE by giving him flight ticket voucher for Christmas, we had to get busy J And in UAE and Oman there plenty of places where to “relax”!!

So on Wednesday 8 of September I left Doha office at noon, quickly finished packing my 32 kilo bag full of climbing, kiting and outdoor gear and flew to Dubai. I almost met Jan in Dubai airport, because we landed both there at 6pm, but in different terminals and with different following destinations. He continued to Muscat by plane and I took my car from the airport, filled it with even more gear that was left in my Dubai apartment and headed to Muscat by road to pick him up J We finally met at 4am at Muscat airport and our 13 days pumped with adventure up to the edge could begin!!

First thing on the program was climbing and hiking in Wadi Bani Auf with famous Little & Big Snake canyons. Because there were public Islamic holidays together with weekend, so my friends from UAE could join us. But on Thursday we were there only with Robin, my friend from Qatar who was by chance on business trip in UAE. After only three hours of sleep we went up the wadi, refreshed ourselves in Little Snake canyon pools and headed up for La Gorgette rock climbing area for some afternoon stretching. Nicely tired we went back to Little Snake campsite and waited for the rest of the expedition with a can of cold one.

They arrived at 2am so after a while whole team was already gearing up for Friday action – Big Snake Via Ferrata with five Tyrolean crossings 100m over the canyon bottom.

It started very well when Jaro dropped his pulley down to the canyon at the first crossing, but fortunately Jan brought one more from Czech. So we had to continue 8 people with one pulley. At least we had more time for enjoying the stunning scenery below J Ehm…not that all of us welcomed this opportunity. After we finished Robin told me that he was whole way scared to death and that he hates heights. If this was true he was really brave, because we didn’t notice. But we all had a great fun day of riding the cables J

After the evening in typical camping fashion “All inclusive” with wadi Jacuzzi pools, three more people joined us and we drove back up to do the famous Big Snake canyon trek. Snake canyon is about 5 kilometers long, narrow and deep gorge with a stream flowing between huge boulders and creating pools. The trek goes simply at the bottom of the canyon following the current, jumping boulders and swimming through deep pools, even caverns!!

The fun part about the trek is, that once you jump down from the first boulder down to the pool at the beginning on the canyon, there is no way back and the only way out is the other canyon’s end J

So our group of 11 people headed into the more difficult version of the trek where you need a rope to climb down one section. And just at the start everything what we heard about the Snake Canyon’s beauty and the trek attractivity came true. Swimming in and jumping into crystal clear pools, fun climbing dry waterfalls and boulder formations or warming up lying on sun heated stones. Awesome!! For some of us it was even more thrilling because of no climbing background, but it was certainly outbalanced by the rest. But that just happened when somebody goes somewhere with me J

Only few people stayed until Sunday, so we went for climbing again to La Gorgette. Nice 6c climbing in the shade made a pleasant point after a relaxing weekend. And me with Jan, we moved on J

Around 4pm we drove up the winding dirt track out of the Snake Canyon up to the mountain pass and then down through the night desert to our new destination Masirah Island, Omani kitesurfing paradise. We arrived around midnight to the ferry port and slept hidden from wind behind the car. Good signJ But what was not a good sign was a crowd of cars trying, like animals squeeze onto the first morning ferry. We tried also, but we were not experienced in “vehicle mob” behavior, so we missed. Bit smarter and more aggressive we luckily fit onto the second which came right after the first, so after 2 hours on the boat we stayed at noon at the beach.

Wind was blowing 20 knots, but was quite gusty. We tried anyway, but soon we packed up and came looking for a Masirah kite camp. We found it easily and after a quick discovery that Alex, the camp’s owner, confiscated the best kite beach on the Island, we paid his fee and concentrated fully on kiting.

And that’s how it went for next three days. Sleep under the sky full of stars behind camp wind barrier, quick breakfast and at 8am already pumping kites. Beautiful strong wind until dawn, still a bit gusty but nothing major, flat and shallow water for kilometers rounded by sand banks. Perfect playground!!

Jan demonstrated that kite is like bicycle and you don’t forget it not even after a year of not practicing and was bravely riding on his own and successfully fighting the strong wind. And me? I was in heaven!! Doing bigger, higher and longer jumps, practicing grabs and other tricks…having loads of fun!! We were leaving tired, sun burnt, scratched everywhere, but happy and so relaxedJ

We cleared 1000km to Dubai in 8 hours, so the next day we could have met Jaro and company on my secret Yas Island kite beach. There was not much wind, but enough for 60kg Jan to have a couple of runs. “So much easier in this kind of wind!! Everything works by itself” happily added Jan when we were rounding on Yas leisure drive. It was nice to be back on Yas after a while and see that after one year from official completion date, it is really getting finished, working, nice and useful!!

Time was flying fast and we had so much energy left, so on Sunday early morning we drove to Wadi Tawiyan to climb famous route Jebel Jebel (60m, 6b). Nice, exposed and sharp climb, but I would rate “attractivity-wise” higher one double pitch overhung 6a just next J Question of personal tastes!!

After that we moved to dry Wadi Bih as last year. This time it was one month later, so it was quite pleasant climate down there. We did one easy 90m traditional route, for Jan to get taste of real trad climbing and drove back up to the pass where there was 10 degrees colder and camped. Grill, chairs, cold beer, star-lid sky…UAE classic J The next day we did one 3 pitch 6b+ sport route “Generous Americans” and Jan led another long traditional route on 90m crag. Awesome relaxing two days high on the cliffs…

Unfortunately our loyal and reliable towing car provider Rune, got problem with his vehicle, so we had to shift our UAE desert trip to the last possible day and hope that Asian engineers keep their promises. So instead we made a backup plan and went to Aquaventure waterpark and Lost Chambers. This was also one of the activities which was for a long time available to me, but I’ve somehow never found time to go J We have not expected anything, but after 5 hours flew by we had to admit that that riding on a tube through lazy rivers, rapids, slides and spiral chutes was superb fun. And with a break in dark aquarium exhibition Lost Chambers we went nicely tired home and enjoyed a cold beer looking on shiny Dubai towers.

The last day we were lucky enough and did what we planned, the UAE crown free time activity, quadbiking in the Empty Quarter of the Great Arabian desert. We rented two 700cc Yamaha Raptors in Abu Dhabi and drove another 200km to the desert for 5 hours of sandy fun.

As a motorbike rider Jan quickly got used to motorbike on four wheels and tricky shifty dune terrain, so we could challenge the highest dunes in the area including famous Moreeb dune. “Amazing point after even more amazing holiday” sighted Jan on the top of the dune overlooking Moreeb. I had to agree. We watched sunset coming and dunes casting shadow over our second vacations in UAE.

I had to fly back to Qatar at 2am to be back at work at 7am and Jan stayed one day more, drove by metro to the tallest building in the world, saw Dubai from 134^th floor and flew back home also. We were sad that it is over, but happy about that everything went even beyond expectations and most importantly relaxed despite being in action every day of those two weeks…and also full of plans how to continue with our new tradition of holidays in adventure style, because that is our way to be J

Qatar forever - Against time

Time flies. We all know that. But how fast can time sometimes be I learned not until now. Welcome to Qatar, the Time Sink.

“What? Today is Thursday again?” I wondered once again when I was kicked out of the office at 4pm and stood in the heat of afternoon sun in front of our collection station. “Why is that the days pass so fast here?” I began to think.

I started mindlessly my 40 minutes drive home through the busy city of Doha. When I looked into some other drivers I saw that I was not alone there going the thousand times known route through empty Doha city center and then flat boring landscape full of low sandy villas, feeling lethargic and tired, with no better plan than to sit at home, have a dinner, surf internet and fall asleep. Actually they were not only a few of them, it seemed that that all the others were having the same “zero” plan.

And then I got it!! When you do the same thing all and all over again, all the days will fall into one and week will chase a week in a devilish fast sequence. “Every day same. I feel like a robot” I immediately recalled a sentence from 5^th grade English class many years backJ That’s why I was feeling so psychically sick!! Cure? Break the routine!!

Break the routine. Easy to say, but much harder to do. Especially in Qatar it is double truth. Why? Because you are in this alone!! Nobody else seems to be bothered the monotonicity of the everyday life. So nobody else will accompany you, support you or encourage you. They are dragging you with them. You have to have a big deal of self motivation to break the cage. Other problem is that there is seemingly nothing to do!! There is 45°C outside. There are not interesting places to visit or to go, which will draw your attention straight away. Except kite, all activities I was used to were not possible here and all communities of people doing squash, board games, dancing, canoeing or any other free time activity are either non-existent or invisible. I had to start from scratch.

So my first steps led to the most obvious and accessible place of active relaxation, to a gym. Yes, to a gym. A place full of big biceps guys with tiny legs doing arm curls with ton free weights in front of the mirror. “But what…I’ve never done it, so I’ll try and if I don’t like, I quit…easy” I thought and went in. “Hmm I see your situation, but the minimum membership I can offer you is for four months!” told me the consultant. “So I have to be going for four moths?” I asked in disbelief. “You don’t have to be coming, but you need to pay!!” was his straight answer. “Ehh…but once I’m here…” Now I’m going three times a week and you wouldn’t believe it, it is quite fun.

But the most important is that I clear my mind, tire my body and when I go to bed I feel that I’ve done something worth, that I live my life. And I feel peace J

But I cannot go training every day and having four blank days is just too much. Sometimes I go kiting, but the winds here are not very reliable, so I needed some more plans. Unfortunately I don’t have 4x4 so my exploration options are limited. Because I still feel that deep inside the enemy Qatari landscape there are a lot of hidden treasure places. Just you probably need to go far enough.

Anyway…one day I found on the internet the link to the highest Qatar point Qurayn Abu al Bawl with the impressive height of 103m above sea J It was not far from my home, so I took GPS coordinates and drove on a rarely used road to a point around 3 kilometers from the hill. I don’t need to tell you that I couldn’t see it yet!! I set azimuth and started walking. Around 1km from the spot I was still not sure which terrain unevenness might be my target. Only after I came down the last “ridge” I saw it another 1km further. A table shaped hill around 30m high J Found & Conquered!!!

On my back home I for my Lancer an alternative route I saw Google maps. I saw several sand dunes across the road, but I wanted to try. I had plenty of time anyway!! Soon I discovered that nobody had been using this road for years, because it was full of holes and I had to drive slowly. It was still ok until I saw the first dune in my way! It was a big obstruction and the bypass went straight off the road!

Fortunately Qatar has proper desert with sand only in one place and it was not here, so around the dune was a hard stony field which the Lancer could take easily J A quick decision I had take when coming back to the road and had to cross a rather small sand field. “There are enough stones around to build the road through if I get stuck!” I justified flooring the throttle and jumping through!!

It took me around 2.5 hours to get through 20km stretch of this half road track. I had to do couple of more trips off road and do some more identical justifications, but I reached the other end safely, without any damage and in a good mood.

Timing was perfect, because after a quick lunch I met Ovi, the Qatar kite guru and his students in Messaieed desert to go kiting into one inner lagoon created by tide between the dunes. I hopped into his Land Cruiser and after 15 minutes of easy desert driving we were on the spot. Super flat water I have never been riding on and a decent wind for the 15m provided an awesome session. It was a bit weird because I was the only one with kite big enough, so I felt sad for the others fighting to keep theirs in the air while I was jumping between them!!

Three hours till sunset were quickly gone and we moved to Ovi’s paragliding spot. Unfortunately there was not enough wind to fly, so we sat down to the warm sand, watched stars, enjoyed the desert silence and chat.

That was a weekend day how I like it and how it should be. “Hmmm…maybe it is possible to have fun here in Qatar” I thought.

And my feeling grew even stronger when next weekend we did the same trip, but with opposite results. From the beginning we saw that there is no wind for kites, so we went directly to try paragliding. And we were lucky!! Ovi launched his tandem glider and flew with each of us. Wind was not strong so we were flying only low, next to the dune which slope is turning the horizontal sea breeze up. I felt that the glider is like kite.

You need to feel the power of the wind in the handles and then you can do everything. We were flying close to the dune that you could touch it!! Like kiting in 10cm of water I felt…smooth turns, ups and downs, stalling, accelerating…amazing J

We finished after sunset again, stopped at the beach for a swim on the way back and the Qatar unexpected chillout continued…

Now I’m almost sure…Qatar is not that bad as it looked. All things are here…somewhere hidden and it takes a lot of time and effort to find them. Maybe they don’t have the quality as in other countries, but they have their own magic. With enough determination to go against the current and persistence in trying to find the way, this place can be as you want it to be…it will take time, but I believe it can be done…and this is an important discovery for me, because my departure is far far away and I will have the time!!

So I better get something from it and don’t make it the quickest year in my life J

Addicted!!

Where this actually came from? It was long time ago when we saw with my brother a guy, desperately swimming in the windy day in the middle of Lipno dam, playing with some kind of strange thing, which was supposed to be flying and not floating in the water. I didn’t pay much attention, but Jan did so I was hearing time to time after that about some cool sport where you are riding on the water and that flying thing is pulling you. That you can jump high, do crazy tricks in the air and that it is definitely a lot of fun. That thing is called kite, the sport kitesurfing and from many videos you can see that it is really COOL J

So when I came to Dubai, to the land of sea & sun, it was not very difficult to convince myself that this sport would be great and that I want to learn those tricks and fly high!!

Now it is a year and a half I’m riding. It’s a year and half I’m going to the beach to try if there is wind and if I would have a go. Sometimes I’m lucky sometimes not. But I still go. I try, I fail. Sometimes I manage to do a good jump, sometimes I don’t. But I still keep trying. I think, I analyze. Sometimes I figure out where was the problem, sometimes I don’t. But I’m still willing to improve. I watch, I observe. Whenever I see moving palm leaves, I start to think about going to the beach and I check wind forecast every hour. Crazy huh? J

When I was going to Qatar for the first month, I had three kites at that time 15m, 12m and 9m and of course I took one kite and board with me, the 15 RRD Obsession. I didn’t want to miss a single windy day. The wind was good for couple of days, but also too strong some days. So the next month I brought 12m RRD Hypertype II for windier days also. And my wish came true when the forecast showed one whole week of superior wind around 20 knots. Paradise!!

I disappeared from work half an hour earlier to maximize the riding time, pumped up the 12, which was a bit overpowered but nothing serious and launched in. One ride back and forth to check handling and if I can go upwind, followed by the first jump. I managed it nicely. It was probably the highest and longest jump I have ever done. I shouted with enjoyment while hanging in the air, landed smoothly but I forgot about the kite so in the strong wind it took a fast turn and smashed to the water. Not an especially hard crash I thought when re-launching, but…it didn’t want to fly again. After a quick look I found out why…there was a huge tear through the whole canopy L So after five minutes in the water I was already packing up and going home. But the worst thing was that I lost the kite for the rest of the week!!

The next day I skipped, but I really had to hold myself back and drown the urge in beer. But the day after I just couldn’t stay home, so I pumped and completely depowered my 15m Obsession and went in.

And the history continued. After 15 minutes of OK rough riding in meter high waves and 20 knots gusts I jumped. I jumped high and flew far, but unfortunately faster than the kite, so when I landed it stayed behind me, stalled and started falling straight to the ground. I saw it falling and thought “It will get hit by a gust just before the water and will yank me hard!!” And exactly that happened, with only difference that I stayed in place and it was the bar, that didn’t survive the impact and broke, which flew away!! Later I discovered that also one line snapped.

Nice performance again and I was for the second time in three days waking with kite and board on my back that 300 meters to the shore. That was my “Paradise” kite week!!

But I didn’t give up and as it was always I was thinking how recover and learn from it. I went to Dubai to get the 12 fixed and…by chance there was very good offer for a brand new 12m RRD Addiction. I fell in love immediatelyJ The 1000 horsepower kite with endless lift and hang time was exactly what a lately discovered that I want to be doing. Flying…and flying long!!

My kite collection grew to four, but I’m still waiting for a good day to really prove that it does what the sellers say. The one day I had, I blew my chance because I changed the settings as I was used to, but it unfortunately completely destroyed the trimming and it performed like an old-timer!!

But instead we had another couple of super windy days, so I went for some serious action equipped with the 9m I also brought from Dubai.

And history continued again. My super strong Hypertype couldn’t handle a 25 knot gust and I instantly and uncontrollably slid downwind, fell, lost control of the kite which immediately looped, threw me to the air…no need to continue or express how I felt flying without control 3 meters high and just waiting to crash back to the sea…

After second leap I managed to release, so I was once again walking the loser’s 300m back to the beach. This time also with a hole in my hand which needed stitching!!

I was really pissed. On the kite, on me...but as it always was, I calmed down, analyzed the situation and came to a conclusion that it was my fault. I shouldn’t ride when I felt so overpowered...So I went to Dubai seeking solution once again and it came in form of even more amazing offer for RRD Obsession 7mJ My quiver didn’t grow thought, because the canopy damage on the 12m was too serious, that I’ve been advised to leave it…but I have 5 kite bags anyway J

You know…a lot of bad things happened lately to my kite mind, but somehow I feel that it just made me stronger, wiser, more experienced, more deliberate and most importantly that it didn’t touch my passion for kiting.

So with a great enthusiasm and better equipment I’m waiting for the next windy day to unleash everything what I’ve learned and become a better kiter…that’s my addiction!!

Escape to the mountains

It is surprisingly (actually not at all :) almost three months in Qatar. The first month was fine, because I was thinking that after that I could go back to Dubai, so I didn’t care that much about what to do and about finding some friends. But when I realized that I’m not going home soon and that I have to mentally prepare for at least couple of months here, I started to look around.

And one of the first things I found out was that there are no mountains, no rocks and no boulders to hike or climb. And a life without some high points to conquer, look from or just see them on the horizon is simply…different!! I have never lived in such a flat country (Qatari highest point is 103m high limestone hill in the middle of the peninsula) and soon I started to feel a bit desperate.

So similarly to temptations of Magic tournaments in UAE I succumbed to an allurement of a weekend Oman trip organized by my Dubai friends. Idea of camping in 2000m above sea level in nice 25°C under the stars again and with an opportunity to drive my Tiguan to some off-road again was revitalizing and I didn’t spend even a minute with buying a ticket to Dubai.

Everything started on Friday at 7am when I loaded Kaupo, Kamil and Monika and we rushed to catch up with the others at Al Ain borderpost. All six car crews united almost exactly on agreed time and place under the mountains in Tanuf and after a short break at drowned up dam, we headed up to the mountain tops following a winding dirt track.

That was exactly what I needed. Entertaining driving, beautiful mountain sceneries, Pilsner beer and good friends to have a chat and fun with. Flawless J

After two hours of climbing uphill we finally arrived to the top village. To our surprise there was a group of brand new houses for the local shepherds built by the government. Good for them, but bad for us, because we lost the best campground which was now under the foundation!!

Never mind…there was plenty of space for everybody, so we made a typical Dubai style camp with camping chairs, tables, charcoal grills, cool boxes, music…and started enjoying the perfect temperature. Somebody stayed and relaxed and somebody, including me, we choose a short hike to nearby peak around 200m above us. Easy and refreshing trek gave me even more taste for beef sausage, covered with beef ham and filled with cheese…aaaahhh...delicious J

But on the way back we passed by a small dirt football pitch, so we had to have a game with the few locals. For them it was a match of the year and because for them there is nothing else to do, they were decent opponents and we deservedly lost after tough fight with them, bumpy pitch and our physical J All the more we enjoyed cold beers and camp fire later!!

Next day we packed up around 9am and started driving the same off-road way to the other side of the mountains towards Snake Canyon. All those narrow dirt tracks were super scenic, winding between deep gorges, stunning slopes and dry wadi beds. Real pleasure to drive through and breathe the atmosphere.

Only small problem that what looks 10 kilometers on the map is in reality 30 and with average speed of 20 kilometers per hour, our transition took much longer than expected, so we didn’t have time for the main attraction of the Big Snake canyon, where you jump and swim down through a cascade of pool and waterfalls in a deep valley…pity, but next time we will be prepared better. I will be prepared better, because I naively thought the others would know, but they of course we interested more in sitting comfortably in the car or a water pool next to the road, so they knew nothing.

But at least we stopped at the Small Snake Canyon and walked through and back. Only three of us made it to the far end though, where was a thin deep pass with chilling clear water and cliffs to jump of…paradise and nice point after chilled out weekend J

After that only another 1.5 hour back to the road though the wadi, crossing several time the river flowing inside. And with splashing water on the windshield we said good bye to Omani mountains and floored it for last 400 kilometers back to Dubai.

When I was flying back my usual 2:20am flight to Doha, I was already planning to come back in August and organize an expedition to the Big Snake Canyon for adventurous souls, because that place is just asking to be visited and explored much much more!!

Closer I was getting to Doha airport, my mood was getting lower again. There is a quality difference between those two lives. I know it. I feel it. But I still haven’t found exactly where it lies and what to do to improve it. Not yet…so until I find the way, I’ll be going to UAE to have the real fun J