One for the road

Today, the New York Times has an article about travel adventures outside of Dubai. The first of which is hiking in the Jebel Hajar (translated as 'Stone Mountains' from Arabic) of the Oman Promontory.

I did that a few years ago ...

We were a group of six in two SUV's, a Land Cruiser and a Cherokee (I believe) which I was in. The 'narrow ravine path alongside the Wadi Bih riverbed' referred to in the article was in fact a pretty scary experience. Our driver was riding the brakes, which is a big no-no since they overheat and fail. That's exactly what happened to us. We were lucky, however, that the path flattened out quite a bit before the next sharp turn and he was calm at applying the emergency hand brake. I appeared calm as long as you didn't look at my left hand grabbing on to the 'holy shit' handles for dear life. No harm, no foul, we made it to the beach okay. I forgot how many crashed vehicles we counted in the ditches, but I would guess now it was around six.

In the evening a group of UAE families camping nearby invited us over to talk. The first thing that surprised me was how much alcohol they had - and how much they had drunk already. They were very generous at ensuring we caught up to them. More evidence that ...

When it comes to alcohol and sex, religion goes down the toilet - Anonymous

After a few hours we got our cameras out to get photos taken with our new friends. When the photos were developed a few weeks later, there was another surprising observation: Not a single bottle of alcohol or beer can was visible on the blanket or in their hands. We were drinking like crazy, loud, and acting silly, yet they all had the presence of mind to hide the alcohol behind their backs for every photo. I wished I had noticed that while it was going on.

Before we departed for our tents, one of the guys was interested in hiking with me so we agreed to meet early the next morning. At 9am, I met him wearing a dishdasha, sandals (with straps only on the foot, not the heel), and a can of Foster's in his hand. It was his second for breakfast.

'Umm, are you sure you can hike in those sandals? If you don't have shoes you can borrow from my friend.'

'No, no. No problem. Let's go'

'Umm, are you sure you can hike in your clothing? You might step on it as you hike."

'No problem. Let's go'

'Sure? Have you hiked like this before?'

'Yeah, yeah, no problem. Many times. Let's go'

'Oookay ... but it's hot, you'll need to bring water. Do you have some? If not, we have extra.'

He held up his beer, 'Right here ... LET'S GO!'

'Alright, let's go then'

To make a long story short, he didn't last 30 minutes. We had to stop every five minutes so he could heave for oxygen. Soon he felt embarrassed that I was not heaving along side with him, so he insisted that I keep going. At one point, I thought he was motioning to me that he was going down, so I gave him a 'roger that' thumps-up then continued to the top on my own. It turns out that he was trying to tell me that his sandal straps broke. He wanted me to come down, to tell him he could come down, so he could do so (with me perhaps) and save face. I made a major error in this regard and I later had to go up the mountain a second time to find him.

As soon as I saw him, I rushed to him while outstretching a bottle of water so he could hydrate as soon as possible, but he looked disappointed: 'No beer?'. At least I knew he took the whole thing humourously. I was a bit worried after the lecture I got, deservedly, from my friends.

Unfortunately, due to my indecisiveness earlier in the week, I did not buy my digital camera until after we returned from camping in Oman. I have no idea where the film photos are, so here are some of my favourite shots from the last half of the trip:


^First photo taken with my Canon 300D

^Camel crossing

^Maybe they are referring to the mountains?!

^Their light displays are so TACKY!