The Indian Ocean

Thursday, May 29th, we went on a wonderful adventure....across the country through three of the Emirates to the Gulf of Oman on the Indian Ocean.  I never would have dreamed I would  walk along the shore of the Indian Ocean!

We left after breakfast and headed east out of Dubai on E102 towards Kalba on the coast.  We drove by many little shops on the way out of town.  The foundation of the economy is small business establishments called EST.  Fathers often buy a small business for their sons - the sons build the small business and buy another one.  And so they grow and prosper.  

We also saw some work houses out in the middle of nowhere in the desert.  They are living quarters for foreign workers who live 8 to 10 in a room.  The company transports them to work and back and provides meals.  They are pretty isolated and cannot get anyone on their own.  Sounds pretty grim to me.  Churches often reach out to the men by providing shoe boxes with basic necessities, friendship, and offering assistance.  It's encouraging to know that someone cares for these marginalized men - almost treated like slaves if what we hear is true.

Just out of the city we passed large date farms, goat and donkey farmland, and open range for camels.  How cool is that?  We saw many camels but went zipping by so fast, it was hard to take pictures.  In the pictures below you can see some of the many fences that keep them contained.  I am told many cars get in accidents with camels every year.  In some places there were red triangle warning signs with a camel picture in the middle - much like the deer signs we have in the States.

There were many Acacia trees growing in the desert.

Further east we climbed through the mountains.  This is the area where huge amounts of rock was taken to form the underwater base for The Palm and The World off shore from Dubai. 5.5 million cubic meters of rock were used for the bedrocks The Palm!  The mountains were dark and stark, but none the less striking as well.  

One of the many beautiful mosques we saw along the way...some in small villages but some seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  We also saw modern very nice schools in small villages or out in the middle of the desert.

One long stretch had trees planted along the road with soakers to keep them watered.  Amazing....

We went through two tunnels and then headed down the mountain to the ocean.  

Beautiful date trees, heavy with fruit in wonderful parks along the water.

Then suddenly rows and rows of oil tanks lined the shore.

         

We went through the fairly large city of Fujariah with nice parks, beautiful Mosques, and school children riding very shiny new air conditioned yellow buses.  Judy, I was told that RCI has a resort in this area!  

We spent the afternoon at Fujairah Rotana Resort.  The grounds were lush and colorful and the pool was warm but refreshing in the hot sun.

The dry sand was so hot it just about burned my feet through my crocs...unreal.  The wet sand was nice.  The water was very warm.  It was fun to people watch as we walked...swimmers, fishermen, parasailors...the resort offers about 20 different water adventures, but not many people were out on the water.  It's not exactly high season in this heat!

These men were fishermen.  It looked like they were repairing this net, not fishing.  They used trucks and jeeps to pull the nets in to the shore.  Was interesting to watch.

Interesting little trash pot dug into the sand..

A great day away from the hustle and bustle of the city....