Liwa Oasis

We'd booked an all day tour of the oasis and luckily for us were assigned a young Pakistani by the name of Taj as guide for the day.  Once we got through the (ho-ho) sounds like Indian (aaagghh!) thing about his name which he was of course highly touchy about, things went wonderfully.

The tour itself was most interesting but in reality it was the ability to speak with someone who was willing to talk about religion, politics and his way or life -- all things we in the West read about and think ourselves informed about but know in reality very little about.

He was also the first person I've ever heard who brings the "Insh Allah" (sp) seamlessly and naturally into his conversation.

Taj addressed the Parisian shootings saying that the perpetrators were not real Muslims as Islam was all about peace and harmony, certainly nothing to do with violence.  He also said that the ex-Pakistani cricket captain Imran Khan would turn his country around and bring peace back to his troubled country.

I also got to the bottom of the conundrum from a post or so ago about the washing bit in the men's bathroom.

Not an easy topic of conversation at the best of times, I'll grant, but Taj once he understood what I was asking him stopped the car to demonstrate.  Fortunately it was at our tour's first stop -- a rebuilt fort just outside a small village called Al Jabbar -- where he got onto his hands and knees to demonstrate just how people wash before prayers.

The rebuilt completely empty fort.  Made of dried mud and palm leaves.

So he hadn't quite got what I asked him really but I could deduce that the hose in the bathroom was not used as you would, say in the garden when watering your flower beds when you'd shower water in all directions, rather the washer would let out very limited amounts of water and dab the parts he should 3 times in that particular order ending up behind his ears.  Taj demonstrated how to do this without water if you happened to be in the desert (which of course we were).  But I think I figured it out and like many conundrums, the answer is really quite mundane. And actually very sensible.

He took us to an art fair that had just ended and walked us around as he thought we'd be interested.  Nice of him but the thing that got me was that everything was about camels.  Of course the theme may have been camels but every scuplture, photo and painting was related to camels.  Close ups, camels made of palm trees, sculptures of camels from old tin cans, endless paintings of camels.  People here love their camels.  There are beauty parades of camels with the most lovely fetching into the millions, so I guess why not devote your art to them too?

How many ways can you love a camel?

That and falcons are a passion here.

And of course Ferraris, Maseratis, Bentleys...

We toured a hydroponic garden, toured a date factory and finally visited a camel training facility where people train young camels for racing.  This is big here too.  Successful racing camels go for big money.  They are young, maybe 2-9 years old, after which they are sold to places like the resort where they live out the remainder of their lives.

Training involves tying a bunch of young camels to an old camel ridden by a man and rode round and round the 5-6 km circuit.  The races are longer than horse races.  It takes 3 months to train a new camel after which they start racing.  Again for big money.

Training in action

They have jockeys too, the problem being that young camels cannot bear the weight of an adult.  In the old days they used babies (really) who they strapped to the camel for the race, reason being that babies crying encourages the camels to run faster (again really).  However this practice has thankfully been banned so now they use robot jockeys.

Meeting a new friend

Taj's Bangladeshi trainer friend showed us a specimen robot to which he plugged in a battery and showed us how the owners who drive around the inside of the circuit during the race use the remote to work the whip that encourages the camel to run faster.  Boy, did that whip go around fast!

The robot jockeys are operated by the owners in their SUVs that drive around the inside of the circuit as the race is on.  If their camel falls behind or if they generally want to exhort it to go faster, they press their control (like a garage control) and the whip thing whirls round and round... Ouch, ouch, ouch...

We ended up by going overland or rather over-dune back to the resort in what they call 'dune bashing'
here.  Namely letting the tyres down considerably (otherwise you could flip over) and aiming at the big dunes.  As fast as you dare.  Quite hairy it was too but also great fun.

I was absolutely fascinated by the desert.  Just stunning.

**

Our final morning was spent racing up the big dune now we were experts in dune climbing --- less
than 30 minutes up, still 10 minutes down with nary a stop for sand removal from our shoes.

Then it was all over.

What a trip!

The Sand Sea

Morning in the desert is special.  It feels that everything is new again probably a bit like in the snow, for the wind overnight had erased all signs of civilisation from the sand dunes at the same time slightly altering their shape.  Or maybe that was just my imagination but certainly all the footsteps had gone.

The big dune

We had an action packed day planned starting with archery followed by some camel trekking and ending up with an Arabian banquet outside in a tent.

The archery was fun.  We met another young couple for the archery who were very interesting and reminded us of the amazingly complex, cosmopolitan world that we live in.  From Dubai, the husband, Noor, was an Egyptian who lived in Montreal whilst his wife, Emma, was a half-English, half Lebanese ex-lawyer now converted Muslim parachute instructor who was dressed in the full costume (including the black Abaya) but with sneakers on.  Really.

By the end we were aiming at that wood frame in the distance and getting our arrows half way up the dune behind!  We still couldn't hit the targets.

Noor's father had decided to send him to Canada to get his papers there as the situation in Egypt was so dodgy and with 5 years under his belt, that is not far away.  His sisters are there now too for the same reason.  He provided some interesting/worrying insight into the difficulties facing young middle eastern men such as him in the west; the profiling, the distrust, etc.  Noor conceded that he understood where that came from but being on the receiving end it was quite upsetting and dispiriting.  It made me think particularly in the recent aftermath of those horrific Paris shootings that less stable young men could easily turn to the dark side.

He was also quite an instructor seeing as our guide was as useless as a lump of lead and showed us how to set up, arm and shoot arrows using the bows provided.  We ended up by shooting arrows at the longest distance possible (some 50 yards probably) which showed just how difficult this archery thing really was.

Perfect style!  Now lets just aim it in the right direction...

I know, in 10,000 hours we'd achieve mastery.  So only another 9,999 to go!

**

As we had some time before our camel experience we decided to walk to the top of that big dune we overlooked from our room.  This would mean putting into action our newly discovered talent for climbing on sand.

The first thing we discovered was the endless possibility for getting sand in your shoes.

Viv would stop every 10-15 minutes or so and empty her shoes. I couldn't understand this as once empty, sand would get in her now empty shoes all over again meaning she would stop and repeat the process.

Being dry (it only rains once every couple of years or so) the sand is very fine and gets absolutely everywhere!

The second thing we discovered was that it was a long way up.

Long way back too -- that's the resort in the background and a wadi down to the right

We had seen people climb up the dunes but had not connected the dots about the figures we had seen      at the start and the specks we could barely see at the summit.  In books and on TV I can remember reading and hearing people talk about "false summits" when climbing.  From our room's balcony we couldn't see the detail too much but in person there were very many summits, and last bits, and just a few more steps and we're there before we reached somewhere near where it looked as though it could be finally the summit.

Not quite there yet...

And then it was.  And quite a view it was too.  We could see.... even more sand dunes in every direction extending out to the horizon.

Top of the world, well dune...

Coming down was a breeze though, thankfully.  45 minutes up, 10 minutes down.  Leaving plenty of time to spend by the pool before our camel adventure.

**

The camel party was bigger than the others we experienced.  Lots of German speakers too.  But when we found the camels parked in the desert, we discovered that of course they'd counted and there were precisely enough camels to go around.

The camel park in the middle of nowhere.  They must have known we were coming.

My camel was called Amman and unlike the others he didn't want to get up until the others were ready to head off.  They are social creatures and like to follow other camels which makes them easy to train.  The guides tied all the camels together and we set off tramping away whilst they provided running commentary.

Great sunset in the desert

Dromedaries with one hump, very loyal and hard working but stubborn, very long memory that can hold a grudge for years, able to walk for 30-40 days without water or food, you name it our guides told us all about them.  Certainly not vicious and apparently very good to eat with very mild milk (that bit is true), their fur was quite soft and they were also quite cuddly.

We finished up wishing we'd opted for the longer tour but it did mean we had plenty of time to think about the Arabian banquet that the resort had set out in the desert with all the traditional Arab mezzes and food. It was still cold so we opted for inside the tent next to a large emirati family.

As for the food, the mezzes were the usual hummus, tabbouleh, etc and the mains were the usual barbeque, koftes, lamb chops and beef steak.  Very nice too it was and it turned out that Noor and Emma (from archery) had also thought this a good idea and seated themselves next to us for some more fun conversation.  And of course food.  It turns out that this was Noor's birth week so Emma had put together a week of UAE desert resorts for him as he missed the desert being in Montreal where it was currently minus 20!

Quite understandable.  I will suggest something similar to Viv next month when it is my birthday.

Qasr Al Sarab

We or rather Viv had planned a desert adventure for us at a resort called Qasr Al Sarab bang in the middle of the Empty Quarter, the largest sand desert in the world.  Of ocurse we wouldn't be doing the full Lawrence of Arabia crossing the desert thing but we'd be playing at it.  And in the modern world purview the UAE was the playground where all such dreams are not only possible but actually come true.

The resort is 2 hours from Abu Dhabi on mainly multi-lane highway shrinking down to a 2-lane new road that spilled onto the resort.

Modern day oasis looking very much like a gas station

I tried to do some mental arithmetic on how long it would have taken had we been on camels which travel 2-3 mph and which can walk for 8-10 hours per day and came up with 10-12 days walking time in the pre-oil boom and infrastructure days.  The comfortable SUV with A/C, cold drinking water and a selection of Arabian sweetmeats to snack on was a much nicer alternative to the old days.  Progress is actually pretty good!

Dunes, dunes and more dunes

The resort is sited in Liwa Oasis, the province of the ruling tribe and was built there as a reminder of times past and a nice place to be (with all modern amenities of course) if you wanted to go back to your roots.

Qasr Al Sarab

Our room had a lovely terrace view out over the dunes and we could see people tramping out all the time to climb the very big dune just outside the immediate grounds, which was a vantage point for the setting sun.  Our room faced west so we'd have a great view of the sunset.

The Empty Quarter

We'd planned a bunch of excursions, the first being a night hike amongst the dunes.

First observation is that the desert can be really cold.

And windy.

And quiet.

And dark.

Except for the oil rigs burning off gas every 5-10 miles and for the telephone towers placed everywhere...  We could complain about the no escape from civilisation but the internet connections were lightning fast!

First stop was at a salt lake in the middle of nowhere.  Water in many places is less than 5 metres below the surface (that is in the valleys between the sometimes massive dunes) but with rain coming maybe twice a year and in fairly small drizzly doses apparently, it is pretty dry.  Certainly the sand was very fine and very, very dry.  So the old lakes that lay below the surface and which used to make up this part of the world millenia ago don't have much to work with.  However at various places (we visited half a dozen in the time we were there) the water is closer than usual to the surface and shows itself in salt flats with the very occasional and very small ponds which are insanely salty.  The guide the first night said the water was good for the skin but when I sloshed a bit on my face, all I could feel was grit, grit and more grit.

The salt pond

We also got to practice our walking up hill on sand dunes walk.

Viv said it was like a stairmaster machine whereby you tramped uphill on that ridiculous machine and got nowhere.  Climbing in some sandy parts was like that too.  You got precisely nowhere.  However when we saw our guide calmly strolling uphill like it was nothing we figured there was a right and wrong way of doing it and we were likely on the wrong side.  It helped that he was 50 kgs soaking wet of course but when you sort of imagine your foot as a big flat tray and think snow shoeing, it does get better.  A bit anyway.

I'm sure the views were great from the top of the dunes but as it was night we couldn't see.  And sadly with the wind whipping up the sand, other than for directly above we couldn't see too many stars either.  Had we been out and lost in the desert that night, we couldn't have navigated by the stars at all!  However we could have navigated by the dunes.

According to our guide the wind comes 80% of the time from north to south so the north side of any dune is quite sheer and difficult to climb but the south side has sand that sort of wobbles off into the distance on a gradual basis.  That side is much easier to walk on and climb so that is how the desert tribes would navigate when the star method failed.

Fun introduction made better by meeting our co-adventurers who were Germans from Berlin with whom we drank wine and told silly stories until the wee hours when we returned.