Day 11 (2023) Abu Dhabi: BBQ in the desert & climbing the highest dune!

15.4.23

Today is another calm start to the day. Around 11 o'clock, we will visit the new 'Sports Activity Park' in Masdar a few streets away. Nicely designed, you can find everything here to stay fit, play sports, or have fun - for all ages. From the fitness circle with weights and various exercises to the soccer and basketball court, beach volleyball, BMX track, climbing frames, zip-line, and more.

Next to it are toilets in Hobbit style 😄

We stroll around the entire place - it's hot. Without wind and sun protection, I could never 'exercise' here...

After about an hour, we continue to Masdar Mall to have lunch in the food court and get some last-minute things for the desert evening, which is planned for today.

Together with 3 other multi-cultural expat families (German-Argentinian, Brazilian, and American), we zoom off in 4 large SUVs and us in our 'Nissan Sunny' around 2:30 towards the desert of Al Ain, which happens to be very close to our desert camp from a few days ago.

Our convoy has to stop at 3 ADNOC gas stations. The hunt for firewood proves to be a difficult and, above all, expensive affair, as trees don't really grow in abundance here. In the end, the other families manage to get 2 bags of firewood. Great, then we can continue!

We continue on the highway towards Al Ain. At some point, we leave the paved road and turn onto a sandy track. From here, we can't go any further with our Sunny. We park it by the roadside and distribute ourselves to the other families' cars. We continue in the SUVs on the sandy track into the desert.

We drive on a 3-lane 'sand road'. No one really knows what these roads were intended for, but it is believed that they are training race tracks for the camels. We see several camel herds next to the track.

After about 15 minutes, we have found 'our' perfect dune!

We set up our camp at the foot of a huge dune. All families have tables, camping chairs, grills, food and drink boxes, etc. with them. It's clear that they have done this before. While the men search for the perfect spot for the grills and the campfire (unfortunately, it's very windy and the sand is whipping around us), I explore the dunes with the kids (10 kids aged 2-9 and my own *grins*). The boys climb the high dune effortlessly and then race down on a snowboard and plastic sleds. How cool! 🤪

I climb a smaller dune with my daughter and go around the desert behind it. In a large arc, we then also climb the giant dune on the crest. Not quite as exhausting as the direct ascent, but still quite strenuous on the legs. By the way, we are not alone. Another desert group has set up their tables for dinner on another dune, and shortly afterwards, the Dune Bashing Jeeps race down our giant dune.

Phew, luckily the kids weren't there - that's really dangerous... However, today we only encounter the two Jeeps.

Many photo stops later, we all reach the highest dune and actually want to watch the sunset, but the wind ruins it for us. I have sand EVERYWHERE! After a few minutes of sitting, my arms and legs are covered in sand, and my teeth are grinding. Yuck.

Unfortunately, it's also very cloudy, so we all decide to start the descent before sunset - on foot, as a 'roll', on the board, on the sled, or like the little ones: on their dads' shoulders.

In our 'camp' at the foot of the dune, the first grill is already smoking. There are sausages, salads, hummus, flatbread, garlic bread, burgers...

Everyone is getting full!

The wind has disappeared with the sun. Crazy, as soon as the sun sets, the wind stops. The kids romp around in the sand, play with light sticks, and for dessert, we have marshmallows - of course with cookies and chocolate - the Americans teach us how it's done 😅

Music plays on the boombox, we sit around the campfire and make ourselves comfortable. Wow, it's so cool here!

It's great to have the biggest sandbox and adventure playground right in front of us!

By 10 pm, we have packed everything back into the cars. All families are wearing headlamps - not a bad idea, because you can't see anything otherwise. But like I said, they've all done this before.

Awesome!

Our Sunny is still by the roadside - lucky us - so let's go 'home' to Abu Dhabi, where I will find sand everywhere when changing clothes....🫣😂