Desert Safari - Animal Tales and HDYGG

We booked with ABC Tours who collected us from home, they charge AED125 and pick you up in a modified 4x4 with roll bars and other safety equipment. We drove 45 minutes out of Dubai to the Lahbab desert on the Oman road.

 The driver lets air out the tyres before attempting the drive across the sand dunes. The 4 x 4 drive was around 20 minutes with a stop in the middle of nowhere to take photographs.

We saw these goats wandering around the desert

 We passed a camel farm but at speed so a photograph was difficult.

I'm always surprised at how much vegetation there is in the desert, considering there is no natural water supply. The mountains in the background are Hatta where there is a natural water supply. 95% of the water in Dubai is desalinated water.

 Again, another drive by at speed. These are desert squashes and it is believed they can cure diabetes.

The sap from these bushes is poisonous.

Meet Katrina the Falcon. It costs an additional AED10 to handle the Falcon and take your own photographs.

 The camel rides are included in the tour price, but it's not for me, I've no desire to ride a camel, but my friend did.

 A small henna tattoo is included in the tour price, we opted to have half the arm done which was an additional AED30

 Once the sun set, dinner was served, again included in the price as well as a welcome snack. Soft drinks and apple flavoured sisha were free, alcoholic drinks were an additional charge. The evenings entertainment included this guy with his umbrella, I have no idea what was actually said, but his skirt lit up and he twirled it over his head, then gathered it into his arms and rocked it like a baby while the PA system played the sound of a baby crying....bizarre

 Next came the belly dancer, she was good, an awful lot of twerking went on.

The sunsetting over towards the sea and Dubai, is a glorious sight to be seen, it's gets a little chilly once the sun sets, so I'm glad I brought a jacket with me and a head scarf to protect against the sand and the wind.

Animal Tales

Falcon
The Falcon is the National bird of the UAE. Falconry was first used to supplement the indigenous Bedouins diets with meat, hares and small birds caught by trained falcons.
Camel farming
It is believed the Bedioums can survive 1-2 months in the desert on camel milk alone. Camel milk contains 10 times the amount of iron found in cow's milk and 5 times the amount of Vit C, it is also a good alternative for those who suffer with intolerance to cow and sheep milk.
The world's first large-scale camel dairy farm, Camelicious on the outskirts of Dubai, has everything from milking camels on a fully automated system to processing, testing and distribution. Around 5000 litres of camel milk is produced everyday and stored in underground cooling tanks before being processed. They employ150 workers for the 2,200 camels.
Camel milk had a longer shelf life and when pasteurised the milk will keep for 14 days in the fridge without deteioration. The dairy has been inspected by EU officials to guarantee the production standards are up to tricot import rules.
As well as milk, Camelicious produces ice-cream, flavoured milks, butter, cheeses, yogurts and whey powder and export their milk to the UK. 

HDYGG?

The Beduoins are at one with the desert and wildlife and familiar with the medicinal properties of many plants.

Squashes found growing in the desert carry a claim by the Beduoins that it can be used to cure diabetes. Powered leaves mixed with water are used as a laxative and crushing the leaves and making a poultice with garlic can be applied to bites and stings. The sap of an unripe fruit is used to treat scorpion bites. The seeds can be crushed and used with water to darken hair and by crushing the fruit and mixing it with oil can be used to ease painful joints.

Senna pant is used as a laxative also and the beduoin claim it can heal stomach ailments. Milkweed sap is dried and used to treat toothache and poultices made of the leaves can be used to heal rheumatism. The leaves are also used as a fertiliser.

And finally the henna plant used to dye hair and paint hands and feet. Henna plant leaves in poultice form are used for headaches.

Why I’m NOT paying etolls

Part of me may reconsider this decision having just had the suspension replaced on my Jeep although I can probably attribute most of the damage to the 18yo driving it, Top Gear, style off road over the past year.

I have no real need to use the toll roads, I may occasionally use the N1 for 3 junctions or the R21 for 1 junction to reach the majority of my volunteer work, but I don’t think I can be bothered with the hassle of setting up an account for once or twice a week for what will amount to just a few Rand.

I can reach all my destinations with a little bit of forward planning and a good street map I recently purchased. I will need to plan a route that avoids the etolls for any airport runs, but I’m fairly confident on that and I may have to rethink the whole idea when the Santa Shoebox season is in full swing, September to December, and I have to travel to the North of Pretoria, but for now I’m NOT paying etolls because I simply have no need to travel those routes.

I know many people who are refusing to pay their accounts, but like the UK poll tax, it caught up with them and I suspect a few are already considering purchasing an etag to save a bit of money.

I do however see the benefits of etolls, here my tax disc costs around R250 a year compared to £400 in the UK and although fuel prices are catching up, the fuel tax is lower here. The M10, the route I currently use is pitted with pot holes, congestion and a lot of accidents causing delays and I do have to go slightly off route to reach it, so may not actually be saving any money, but like I said before, it’s the hassle, not the cost of etolls that I’m avoiding.

How about you?

What's the worse thing that can happen to your child if they don't......?

Get the lead role in the Christmas play? Give the best and most. expensive gift to the teacher at the end of term? Have the best costume? Win all the races on sports day? Have THAT toy/gadget/latest craze? Take part in every after school club? Swim/dance/karate/kumon?



Nothing......unless of course they are forced to live with a stressed out, neuortic parent that feels they are a failure because their child isn't the most popular/intelligent/prettiest child in the world. Or even worse one that constantly tells their child to take part in things they don't want to and force them to be someone they're not.




There's an easy way to resolve this. Either join the PTA, make cash donations to the school, buy a pair of Birkenstocks, drive a 4x4 and own the latest handbag. Because that's what you tell yourself is the reason why your child misses out on everything.



And stop listening to the 'Professionals' (other parents) on twitter and facebook and in the playground who half the time are telling you a bunch of lies because it's all about them and not their child anyway.


If you think I'm talking about YOU, then you might like to see if you're what I considered to be a Yummy Mummy also.

I'm sick to death of being laughed at?

I would like to invite any South African to travel back with me to the UK on my next visit so I can laugh at them for their silly mistakes.

Hire a car in the UK, drive to a petrol station and sit in the car waiting for an attendant to come out and fuel your car. I'd love to see the look on your face when you blast the horn and no one comes to help you. Would you actually know how to fill your car up and as for air in your tyres, well that would be a laugh.

Stand at the checkout, watching all your shopping getting scanned, then being tsk tsk'd by other shoppers as you feebly attempt to pack your own bags.

Wait in a car parking place for some one to jump behind your vehicle to help you get out of a tight spot.

It would all be new to you, you'd assume things would be the same where ever you went, you certainly wouldn't expect to be laughed at for not knowing how a system ( sucessfully for others) works, especially after you've gone to the trouble of explaining you're from a different country.

So why do you think it's OK to laugh at me?

I think it's perfectly normal to ask the garage where you purchased your car from, who you have an extended warranty with, for the price of a service. Don't you?

Well Barloworld Toyota thought it was funny, the service receptionist actually Lol'd at me, then said 'we don't service any other vechiles other than Toyota'

So marching off to the Jeep garage, I explained I wanted a quote for a service, a new Transfer Case Switch (I currently have a turning cirlce the size of a football pitch) and a tyre pressure valve that Toyota have ignored since I purchased the car.
They made me a cup of tea while I waited....what service and no one laughed at me.