As regular readers will know after 27 years living in the desert we have finally developed a spirit of adventure and decided to make the most of what is on our door-step.
Having already tried off-roading on sand, our next adventure was to hit the Wadi’s, Wadi Tayyibah to be exact, located in the Hajar Mountains of Fujairah. What could possibly go wrong with driving across a rocky dried up river bed which is prone to flash floods when it rains?
Once again my Lawrence of Arabia instincts kicked in and tooled up with the Leica Type 246 and the 50mm Summilux, a picnic and accompanied by Seth, Claire and the boys, we set the sat-nav to Fujairah and made sure everything was crossed!
As always it was a pleasant drive through the desert in the Emirate of Sharjah but as we get closer to Fujairah there is a dramatic change of scenery as the Hajar Mountains rise above the shimmering sands.
However, first stop is one of the road-side markets so that Seth, who is always up for a bargain, could hone his negotiating skills and pick up some of the local fruits and produce. For me, it was an opportunity to take a couple of candid shots of the local market and of course, the master negotiator in action!
Now Claire took the lead with her trusty wadi guide book (the only thing being older was the Hajar mountains themselves). As we wound our way through the village of Tayyibah the road disappeared and what can only be described as a rocky passage emerged. I am sorry that I don’t have many pictures of this stage of the journey but as I gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, trying to gingerly pick out a path that would avoid the sump being ripped off the Landcruiser, I prayed that what was running down my legs was perspiration!
Now at this point I will leave you hanging and delve in to a bit of history. The Wadi itself is a seasonal watercourse (my guidebook did not say which season and how much water) and runs from the village of Tayyibah to join the Dibba Plain. Prior to 1960, Wadi Tayyibah provided the main route from the town of Masafi to Dibba. This route was superseded in the 1960’s when the Trucial Oman Scouts built a new road by dynamiting through the mountains. Naturally, the local tribe got a bit miffed with people blowing up their mountains and the workers were attacked on numerous occasions. Thankfully for us the locals are now extremely friendly and welcoming although it is fair to say that we were the only vehicles driving down in to the Wadi. Did everyone know something we didnt?
Now Seth is pretty adventurous at the best of times and appeared in his element. However, I prefer to maintain the policy that “distrust and caution are the parents of security” and I was becoming increasingly worried about:
(a) How we would turn around to get back out of the Wadi.
(b) Assuming we could turn around whether we could then actually get out of the Wadi.
(c) How much it would cost to repair all the damage to the Landcruiser if we did eventually emerge unscathed.
Now some of you may be thinking that I am exaggerating a little. Well, once if became impassable this is where we ended up parking for a picnic. Please note the absence of both a road and any other human beings!
Phew, all good so far and my spirits rose at the thought of tucking in to our picnic. As for the boys this was one great adventure and the following Image is of my favourite model Raif, who is always obliging and concentrating on keeping still whilst I manually focus and young Atticus, who never keeps still and was intent in showing me the size of the sausage roll he was about to eat!
I was now eating sausage rolls, salt and vinegar crisps and corned-beef sandwiches so was back in my happy place. With everyone watered and fed I took the opportunity to grab a family portrait of Seth, Claire and Family. As you can see Atticus is miles away, still thinking about that sausage roll!
And then I made the mistake of looking up!:
As you can see the clouds were massing, clouds meant rain, rain meant flash flood and flash flood meant…..I didn’t want to think about what flash flood meant! So we packed up the gear and ably directed by Mrs C, which involved a 38 point turn and much swearing on my part, we were now headed in the right direction and gingerly made our way back to the main road.
Phew we finally made it. Don’t know what all the fuss was about!
Well that’s another thing ticked off our bucket list and it didn’t involve replacing the suspension of the Landcruiser. Stay tuned for more adventures!