Cancellation of New Year celebrations

Mohammad orders cancellation of New Year celebrations

All New Year celebrations in Dubai has been cancelled as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

WAMPublished: December 30, 2008, 20:37

Dubai: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has ordered the cancellation of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has ordered the cancellation of all New Year celebrations on Wednesday as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

In support of the Palestinians in Gaza, who are enduring all kinds of killing, destruction and displacement by the Israeli military machinery, Shaikh Mohammad instructed all concerned authorities in Dubai to put this order in place and take necessary procedures to circulate the decision to all concerned parties.

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Government/10271287.html

Merry Christmas

Home from Jebel Sumayni

We didn’t know exactly where the truck was so we had to go back to basics and track our footsteps. It was a good thing Michael had a distinctive pattern on the bottom of his shoes. It turns out my sense of direction is not bad – even outside of a mall. We got back to Dubai just in time to see the sun dip behind the city.

Jebel Sumayni - Where is the truck?

We decided to do some bouldering before heading back to the truck – why are we following Tod no questions asked? It was time to speak up when we needed the missing GPS point to get us back to the truck (Barry!). The sun is going down - I think it’s this way – no, I think it’s this way. . . .

Making our way back down - Jebel Sumayni

Our time at the top seemed short. We made our way back down and tried to retrace our steps as best we could and we were mostly successful. The light was just right to appreciate the colour and shapes of the mountain.

At the top - Jebel Sumayni

We finally made it to the top and we were allowed to enjoy our reward at last! The view, banana and honey sandwich and the fresh air; why don’t I do this more often?

The views of Jebel Sumayni

Look how tiny we are! Three people in the first picture and two people in the last. The view was amazing half way up but we continued to climb. We called up to those in the front, “Is that the top?” Nope, it only looked like it. So onwards and upwards we climbed. I hope these pictures show just how beautiful it was.

Just the beginning of Jebel Sumayni

We had quite a trek before even reaching the base of Jebel Sumayni. It was very rocky which meant that every step you took had you slipping off rocks. It was hard to get good footing. Every time we thought we saw the summit, there was more to climb. Note to self: buy gloves for hiking. Those rocks were sharp!

Hiking Jebel Sumayni

Once Barry was happy with where he parked the truck (out of the way of any traffic that may come our way) we had last bites of our energy bars, marked our starting point on the GPS, made sure we had enough water, posed for a picture and headed towards our destination – the summit. Bye-bye truck we will see you in approximately 6 hours. There was not a lot of vegetation along the way but what I did see was different from anything I have ever seen and I thought these teeny-tiny flowers were pretty.

First a road lake and then Jebel Sumayni

With nothing planned for the weekend I jumped, or rather hopped at the chance to join Todd and Barry for their hike up Jebel Sumayni. We woke up early and on our way to collect Todd we hit a street lake – these are very common in Dubai. This time it did not appear to be caused by winter rain but by a water main. Seven lanes on Sheikh Zayed Road were flooded. I am not a morning person but seeing the Burj Dubai lit up with the sunrise was definitely a benefit of getting up early. Needless to say we were a bit late picking up Todd but we were soon on our way to Oman towards Jebel Sumayni.

Wadi Asimah – Eid Al Adha

Now that we had another day of supplies, we looked at the map and decided to head to Wadi Asimah. We had to traverse through a wadi so extreme that I was so concentrated on direction, rocks, gaps and holes and tree parts that I didn’t even take pictures. I wonder whatever happened to that CRV? We found a very nice place to set up camp just before the sun went down and enjoyed another night by the fire. Our site was surrounded by mountains and below us was the wadi. We will defiantly be coming back to this place to camp again; only next time we will enter the wadi from the other end!

Wadi Sana and Wadi Asimah – Eid Al Adha

When you are standing amongst mountains everything looks like it’s ‘just over there’; when actually ‘just over there’ is really ‘way the hell over there!’. We set off for a short walk which ended up being quite the hike. If you look closely you can see our campsite in the distance. On our return everyone had such a good time the day before that we decided to stay another night. We packed up and headed into town in the hopes of finding a grocery store. We arrived into town during the time around prayer but we were lucky, after finding many stores unopened, to find a grocery store selling what we needed. More than what we needed really because we again had trouble fitting it all in the truck.

Eid Al Adha - Wadi Sana

It appeared that many people ignored the warning and everyone was out enjoying the winter weather. After checking out the many beaches in Fujariah we decided that we wanted something a little more secluded. We took a look at the sky and decided we would chance a night in a wadi (infamous for flash-floods). We drove through the wadis and in perfect time we found a very high spot to camp for the night.

Wadi Sana – Eid Al Adha

Despite the radio report which advised us against camping on this Eid Adha long weekend, we planned the trip and prepared to spend a lot of time in the tent out of the rain. Barry and I have never tried camping with two additional people and packing their camping gear in our truck along with ours proved difficult - the sheisha pipes almost didn’t make it. After all of the packing, repacking and stuffing we decided to pick up some fast food before hitting the road. We filled ourselves with whopping big burgers and then drove toward the Arabian Sea for a destination not yet known.