Cameron's Camel Campaign

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/fast_track/9695147.stm

LuLu's special...

Yummy! The steaks looked juicy and lean - but Caroline was having none of it! They look too cute to eat!

Milo in the desert

We decided to give Milo the chance to return to his genetic roots and take him to the desert. It would be our first time letting him off his lead to run free, so it was a bit nerve racking, not knowing whether he would come back! We had taken some advice and let him know that we had food before we let him off - and sure enough he came back! He did actually seem to love being free and enjoyed the sand beneath his paws.

We drove to an "Endurance Village" in the desert, where the locals enjoy their favourite pastimes of falconry, horse/camel riding, desert driving etc. We could easily access this area in my car without a 4x4. We passed loads and loads of camels on their way back from the camel race track nearby.

One find Caroline made in the desert was this falcon head cover they use. I guess the owner must have replaced it and left the old one in the sand.

Here's a video sequence I put together showing Milo's first time in the desert...

Camel Racing at Sweihan

Last weekend we did something we have said we wanted to do since we got here - go camel racing (not riding you understand, just watching!). I saw an advert in the paper inviting the general public to a camel racing festival in Sweihan which is about an hour or so into the desert from where we are.

The festival ran all week and included Saluki (dog) racing, camel and saluki beauty contests and traditional arts, crafts and dancing. 

The day we were there it was really windy and cold under the cover of the grandstand, so we didn't stay all afternoon, but we did see a few of the races. Here's a few piccies of the afternoon....

Traditional Emirati dances

Gold Ceremonial Sword Prizes

Lexus 4x4 prizes!

One of the unlucky ones!

Camel Beauty Contest

There is an annual festival in the western region of Abu Dhabi (Al Gharbia), which hosts excitements such as a date packaging contest (?!), Arab traditional arts and crafts, camel auctions and beauty contests! Going back to their Bedouin routes, camels are a most revered creature in these parts. So such beauty contest are taken very seriously. Unfortunately I struggle to take them quiet so seriously, especially when camels are described in terms such as having....

"A long, slender neck, full lips, a well-shaped nose and long legs....long, curly lashes, a full hump and even spacing between her toes"

....as one is in the newspaper article below!

I think some of those camels better keep a close eye out behind themselves! Some of these people need to get out more.

During the auctions, however, the best camels can sell for over a million Dirhams (GBP160k+). So for that kind of money I think I could pamper a camel.......

Beauty queen dazzles the judges

Essam al Ghalib

• 
  
• Last Updated: January 31. 2010 2:09AM UAE / January 30. 2010 10:09PM GMT

Hassan bin Edghan al Nuaimi proudly holds Ruwayda, the winner of a beauty pageant at the Al Dhafra Camel Festival yesterday. Jaime Puebla / The National

AL GHARBIA // A long, slender neck, full lips, a well-shaped nose and long legs – Ruwayda had all that, and then some.

Sporting long, curly lashes, a full hump and even spacing between her toes, the one-year-old purebred Omani Asayel finished first in the beauty pageant at the Al Dhafra Camel Festival which began yesterday.

“She was born on my farm,” said Hassan bin Edghan al Nuaimi, 55. “From the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew she was the one. I love her like a father loves his daughter.”

He entered two camels in the pageants. The other, Abraj, won fourth place in the pageant for Majahim camels. The winner was Thamina, a one-year-old owned by Masoud Saeed al Hajri.

Each day of the festival, two pageants are held for camels of different ages and colours.

Camel Farm

We have had Caroline’s mum and Jamie, our nephew, staying with us this week. They wanted to see the desert, so we drove towards Al Ain and stopped near one of the camel farms. Near the camel farms there were some huge stretches of field laid out with straw bales – no idea what they were for.

We stopped off at a park in Baniyas on the way back for Jamie to let off some more steam. It was quite quiet with just a few families having picnics. I think they were a bit surprised to see expats in this park, as Baniyas is really very much a “local” district.

Click to see pictures bigger…

                  

          

                 

             

                

Meeting at Qasr al Sarab

Today I had a meeting with the developer of many resorts and tourist attractions in Abu Dhabi. The guy I was seeing was on site at one of the resorts, Qasar al Sarab (which roughly means Mirage Palace), so I met him there. Considering it is due to be opened on Oct 25th, it still looks like they have a bit of work to do if they going to make it look like the marketing images! However, I understand that they will be sending in 1000 people next week to clean up the whole place to make it look spick and span.

The location for this resort is about 2 hours into the desert in what they call "The Empty Quarter" - for good reason, there is nothing there! Just sand! So the resort is an engineering feat in itself. The road leading to the resort is still unmade and I was a bit worried at times whether my VW Passat was going to make it - it's in situations like this that I miss my 4x4.

The dunes are pretty spectacular and the silence when the labourers stopped work for lunch was deafening. I reckon at night under a full moon, it would look great.

They are going to offer traditional Arab hunting on camel back with Saluki dogs and Falcons - hunting gazelle etc placed in a reserve for this purpose. This will of course cost an arm and a leg, but there will be plenty of Arabs (and others probably) who will be queuing up for this I'm sure.

I had a classic conversation trying to buy a drink at a small grocery store in Al Hameem, the nearest town to the resort. It went like this...

{Looking in the fridge being watched by the Indian shopkeeper, and seeing only a vitimin C drink and Red Bull}

Me: Do you have any other cold drinks?

Shopkeeper: You want chocolate?

Me: {grabbing 2 Red Bulls} Never mind I'll just take these.

Shopkeeper: You want diet?

Me: {happy becuase I usually drink diet Red Bull} Ah - do you have diet?

Shopkeeper: No.

Me: I guess I'll just take these then.


Photos from Qasr al Sarab below.....

Meeting at Qasr al Sarab

Trip to Hatta

We have just had a lovely weekend in Hatta. We stayed at The Hatta Fort Hotel, which we can thoroughly recommend. The staff were really helpful and friendly, the room was lovely and the sightseeing we did was great.

It was interesting to see the scenery change as we left the outskirts of Dubai towards Oman. The sand became redder to start with and then there was more vegetation and trees more like you would expect in a savanna climate. Then we hit the hills and mountains.

We took a look at the Heritage Village on the early evening when we arrived. To be honest, once you have seen one, you have seen them all, but this was nice with the mountains surrounding Hatta. We were up at one of the battlements when the early evening prayer call started and was once of the most amazing things we had experienced here yet. To hear the mosque prayer callers (or Mu'adh-dhin) begin one after the other, while the calls echoed around the mountains was awesome!

We did some offroading into the mountains today, which I absolutely loved but which Caz may have loved more had she been driving and not me! The mountain road is actually over the Oman boarder, but at this point there is no boarder control. We paddled in one of the Wadis that had water flowing, which was nice and cooling.

All in all, a great trip and if we get chance we will go back and maybe drive further into Oman.

Here's a link to my photos and more comments....

Trip to Hatta