The few days in the UAE made us love this country even more. Of course it’s due to our lovely stay with our friends who “pampered” us in every aspect. We arrange a couple of things with banks, visa issues, some shopping and just enjoying… Claudia becomes sentimental and it’s not easy to make her leave the Ibn Battuta Mall, a place she visited a hundred times before, all of a sudden realizing that it’s such a wonderful place… But after 2 days we finally leave, with not only one crying eye… Connie tries to convince us to stay, but if we don’t leave now, we don’t want to leave at all…On our way south to Abu Dhabi, the temperature reaches 34 degrees, which makes us a little nervous: will we be hit by a sandstorm? Hopefully not, because we are going straight ahead of Rub al-Khali, the Empty Quarter, the biggest sand desert in the world.
On our way to Liwa, we pass by a fancy and crazy automobile museum. A rich Sheikh from Abu Dhabi has a collection of more than 200 cars, all the old cars from the first minicooper, the first Hummer, Toyota, Beetle, a rich collection of old offroad cars up to the biggest pickup truck in the world (Dodge). Normally the museum is open only on weekends, and today is Wednesday, but Shami Kumar, a very friendly and helpful Indian, lets us in through the back door, and a little bakshish even makes him show us the inside of the big Dodge: a big apartment with 4 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathrooms, absolutely incredible and crazy. And this truck was even able to drive, which it did for 29 kilometres! It’s really worth to visit the museum, even for people who are not interested in cars at all (like Claudia).
On our way to Liwa, we pass by a fancy and crazy automobile museum. A rich Sheikh from Abu Dhabi has a collection of more than 200 cars, all the old cars from the first minicooper, the first Hummer, Toyota, Beetle, a rich collection of old offroad cars up to the biggest pickup truck in the world (Dodge). Normally the museum is open only on weekends, and today is Wednesday, but Shami Kumar, a very friendly and helpful Indian, lets us in through the back door, and a little bakshish even makes him show us the inside of the big Dodge: a big apartment with 4 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathrooms, absolutely incredible and crazy. And this truck was even able to drive, which it did for 29 kilometres! It’s really worth to visit the museum, even for people who are not interested in cars at all (like Claudia).
Only a few kilometres after the museum, we find a nice campsite between the sand dunes and are happy that the weather is absolutely quiet and nice. As we enjoy sitting in front of our tent, all of a sudden the storm comes! We cannot believe it! Within seconds, a very bad sandstorm is hitting us. We have to flee into the tent, where we find already little sand dunes. We are lying in our sleeping bags, watching how we are more and more covered by the sand. The wind is very strong and the next morning we hardly can believe the tent is still in an upright position. The weather is bad, still stormy, no visibility at all. Quickly we pack our things. Everything is full of sand (and we left Dubai soooooo clean!!). We hardly can see 50 metres and all of a sudden, like a Fata Morgana, 40 camels are standing around us. Five minutes later they are disappeared. Like a dream. The herdsman passes by and tells us that this is only the beginning, the storm will increase! How much we love him for these "good news"!!
On our way to the Liwa oasis, we almost see nothing, driving with light is required to be seen by other cars. After a lot of looking around for a quiet place, we finally find shelter for the day and the following night behind a nice farm where trees protect us against the storm. In the evening, two nice guys from Bangladesh, who run the farm, give us an insight of what they plant, invite us to their house which is just one room. They are very proud to show us an English DVD and after “enjoying” their hot milk, we leave and spend a very quiet night. Thanks God! The next morning, the wind is almost over, but we and the car are still full of sand.
One last night in UAE which we spend at the beach in Sila, preparing for crossing the border tomorrow morning. Now we are well prepared to enter Saudi Arabia: We destroy all suspicious food, get rid of suspicious newspapers, empty Thomas’ aftershave, since any kind of alcohol is forbidden, last dress check for Claudia (black galabeyya) and finally, after 1 ½ years in the UAE, it’s time to say good-bye…
Total distance driven in the UAE 1214 km.
No comments:
Post a Comment