or the most chaotic camping trip…
On a normal boring hot Friday afternoon i was sitting on the balcony with Ryan, my Canadian flatmate and enjoying the peaceful quiet afternoon. He had to go and make a visa run (visa renewal by crossing the border to Oman) the next day and suddenly came up with the idea of how nice it would be to spend the night at the beach and make the visa run the next morning before returning to Dubai instead of making the whole trip on one day. And off we were to the next Carrefour (a french international hypermarket where you can just buy everything) to buy a tent, a candle and a torch. Back home we packed the car as fast as possible and headed towards Fujeira. At least that was the plan. Unfortunatley after one hour we hardly were out of Dubai. We underestimated the traffic on a Friday evening. After two hours of traffic jam we still were nowhwere and it was getting dark and it was getting hard to read the signs. At some points there were no signs anymore at all. Too bad when every intersection consits of a huge roundabout with 7 exits. Well streight always seemed to be a good option - at least until the paved road ended and we were suddenly driving offroad. We were driving in a Toyota Yaris by the way - so not the best car to make offroad adventures.
After hours of driving around blindly we finally found ourselves at the sea. YES at least now we knew where we were, although it wasnt the right direction. Flexibel as we are we changed our plan and decided to head streight up to Ras al Kheima, find a place to camp somewhere there and cross the border there. So far so good. We managed to find the raods until the border, the only problem we had: There was no beach ANYWHERE. When we reached the border is was like midnight and the border was deserted. As my passport was still with the immigration office i couldnt cross the border with Ryan, and he didnt want to leave me standing there alone in nowheresland. So no visa run for the day. But where to sleep and what to do? We decided to go back to the original plan and headed back to Fujeira anyways where Ryan knew a beach to camp.
Driving through the mountains at night with a full moon shining on us was amazing. Quite the experience. After 9 hours in the car and passing through 6 of the 7 Emirates we finally arrived at the beach.
The beach was like a 200 m wide beach, next to the road and therefor lit by the streetlights and right next to a Hotel. And we again forgot that it was a Friday - the whole beach was full of garbage. At least we had enough light to put up the tent. The glass is always half full.
At least till I found out that i forgot my swimmsuit back home. Nice…
Well exhausted as we were it wasnt a problem to fall asleep - until the sun was burning hot at like 6.30 am in the morning. Plus a whole group of Filiponos decided that this was the time to start a picknick at the beach. I have never heard a group of girls screaming like them. No way we could continue sleeping. Furthermore some Indians were walking around the beach cleaning up the Friday mess.
Totally tired and exhausted we decided that packing and heading back to Dubai to get some breakfast wouldbe our best option. On our way back we found - of course - a really nice beach off the road with palmtrees and no Filipinis. At least we didnt get lost on our way back. The shower and the bed have never been so comfortable.
The next trip can only get better!
