Gettin' Around

"My gosh it's soooooo hard to walk here !"












" Try this! It's so much easier to get around!"

Sunrise at the Tal Moreeb

Tal Moreeb means the Moreeb Dune, and that's the big one out here.......over 300 M high, now that's a big sand pile.

Take a look at this video, this is the exact same dune......not quite as serene as this pic here on the left, but everyone has their own take on what is beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ogvbAhUZs&feature=related

You will have to copy the address above and paste it into your browser address bar.....it's worth the trouble!

Calf and Cow

A calf and cow pictured here in the corral. The fence was surprisingly ratty, this would not of kept a cow or a horse in, however,....camels are a different story I suppose.

Here are a few cool camel facts.
1) These are Dromidary camels or Arabian. The two humpers are Bactrian.
2) The hump is fat, not water and it has it's own nifty hairdoo going on there,....."you are stylin' there girlie." Having all of the fatty tissue on top is thought to be better where as if it were spread throughout the body it would likely insulate too much.
3) Camels can live up to fifty years. You want to be sure you are ready to work on the long term relationship with one before you go down to the pet store!
4) Camels have two rows of thick eyelashes to protect their eyes from blowing dust and sand.
5) Camels can go for 17 days without water in scorching weather and can lose 1/3 of its body weight without being affected.They can drink 100- 150 liters of water in 6 minutes
6) They have several adaptations to cope with arid hot conditions; a) a nose that recaptures humidity from the breath. b) an adjustable core body temp to suit the exterior temp. c)urine production goes down significantly when not drinking. d) a camel with its natural coat transpires or sweats 50% less than without, the coat also serves to keep them warm when the temps fluctuate. e)when thirsty transpiration is reduced to near zero. f) they have dry feces, only 2.5 liters of water is lost daily, compare to a cow which looses 30 - 40 liters per day g)specialized blood corpuscles that are oval in shape, this facilitates good flow during a dehydrated state, (only reptiles, birds and fish have these types of corpuscles) h) ear hairs that prevent excessive water loss i) long legs to get some distance from the desert floor. j) big feet to stay on top of the sand. (they don't live in rocky deserts) k) a sturdy mouth that can eat thorny desert plants.
7) Camels generally have a gentle nature but can spit a stream of fetid gick from their upper stomach if spooked, frustrated or angry, apparently its a real chemical bomb.

Keeper of the Camels

Here is our wandering camel tender, back home with the entire herd intact. I was evidently more stressed about it than he was.

What are you Dune over there?

Lila is off to find a tree to cut down so that we can build a fire and cook our breakfast. I hope this doesn't take too long, I'm hungry!

Wall of Sand

Here we are in the Rub' al Khali or The Empty Quarter, this is story book fantasy stuff. We are in one of the largest sand deserts in the world, maybe even the largest, it certainly looks like it from where we are.

Pictured here is the first medium-small sized dune that we encountered. The biggest one in the immediate area is the Moreeb Dune which is more than 300 metres high and has an angle of 50 degrees on the front face,.... it looks like a really really huge wall of sand, I'm guessing it looks that way because it IS a really, really huge wall of sand.
If using Google Earth, type in Moreeb Dunes UAE,....that's were we were!

Nice shot Lila!

A little later on we were treated to this scene, a herd of camels taking their caregiver out for a walk.

Seriously though, he was out cruising with a dozen or so camels very widely spaced apart(there are another dozen behind the dune),...... how he gets them back home I have no idea. I'm guessing Twinkies,... you just make some noise with the plastic wrapper and they come running.

Please, desert me !

Here we are on our way to enjoy a weekend in the Empty Quarter. The Empty Quarter is what they call the desert that starts in the Liwa Oasis area and stretches all the way into Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, and Yemen.

We didn't even have to get where we were going and we saw these crazy looking moose with backpacks on and no antlers. The locals call them camels, I can't argue with them after all it is their country.

Anyway, you can see by the distance they are keeping that they were not interested in the twinkies that I had pulled out of my pocket for them. Funny,... the moose back home always like twinkies. (Click the pic for a larger view.)

Abu Dhabi to launch third session of Camel Festival

This is an internet blurb about the Camel Festival. These critters are pretty cool.

The Festival is held under the patronage of HH Gen. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

The Festival also seeks to highlight Bedouin culture, activate heritage tourism, and promote the name of Al Dhafra in Al Gharbia tourism map, in addition to activating the economic movement in the region.

More than 24,000 camels belonging to 2000 camel owners in the Gulf region participated in the last session for prizes worth Dh 40 million(approximately 11 million US dollars).

Article copied from ExoticDubai.com

Strained what ? !

Yup it says Strained Foul,....nice.
Well, despite the name this stuff is actually pretty good, it's kind of like re-fried beans but with a really bad marketing scheme behind it. I don't know what ever initially possessed us to actually purchase a can of this, crazy I guess.
Truth be told it was actually someone at the grocery store who saw us buying beans and recommended it. She was right! I'll send some home if someone wants a can.

I'll buy ya an Abaya

Here is Lilas' first day in an Abaya. I don't see the local gals showing any ankle, what's up with that Lila?