110 My Sunday Photo 2017 T is for Tour Dubai

Stood at the roundabout at the end of our street on Saturday to watch the 5th and final stage of the Tour Dubai 2017.

The 4th stage on Friday was cut short after high winds, heavy rain and snow along the route.

Creating a garden in the desert and dog socialising

This weeks Animal Tales and How does your garden grow is from the desert. Time Traveller this week is a separate post and is found over at 7 Top Tip for visiting Vegas.

I joined a face book group as a way of meeting people and getting out and about. Dogs aren't popular in Dubai and must be kept on a lead at all times. They're also not allowed on the beach and to be honest, walking various routes around the block is getting boring for me, for Bob we are now limited to the times we can go out, as the temperature is around 40c in the day and only dropping 4-5c once the sun has gone down. The tarmac, tiles and pavement are far too hot for Bob's paws and with the heat we're limited to 2 walks of 30 minutes a day.

The drive into the desert takes an hour and is around 60kms away, I went out last Friday with hubby between 6.30am and 10am and on Saturday on my own from 3.30pm and 8.30pm. Son number 4 of 5 is here next week so we'll have a few extra trips out to the lakes to let Bob run off lead, as it's been 6 months since we left South Africa and he's had this much freedom.

This is also the first time that Bob has been in the company of this many dogs. There was lots of play between them all and unbelievably no hassles with anyone, owners or dogs. Although a lot can be said for the amount of dog poo I scooped up and I'm sure Bob didn't do all of it.

Bob's cool suit was a hit. It's fiddly to put on him as he doesn't want it on, but has velcro so it fits snuggly and it really does help to regulate his body temperature. It was 45c when this picture was taken.

There is amazingly quite a lot of wildlife in the desert including a variety of birds (130 varieties) camels and oryx.

The birds are migratory, there are no known endemic bird species to the UAE. There were nesting areas for the birds to encourage breeding.

On our return I hosed Bob down and fed him. He slept soundly in the car and fell asleep as soon as I let him in the house.

I only had one issue with Bob and that was when he decided to take off across the desert and combined with my bad back and him being the same colour as the sand, I did panic a little that I could be out for the night looking for him, but a few other people came to help and he eventually came back. The last time he did a runner was on the beach near Durban when he took off after a monkey. In fact every time he's ever run off has been chasing monkeys, not sure what got his attention today, but I'm sure it wasn't a monkey.

As well as the wildlife the desert has a lot more green in it than you'd think. The edge of Dubai is approximately 23kms from the shoreline and the whole journey was lined with freshly planted saplings in mesh cages.

The drive is quite pleasant but the sand drifts and it covers the roads and there are signs warning you of antelope, camels and horses as well as road crossings for the cycle path and regulated speed limits with plenty of cameras.

The sand seems to be reclaiming the roads

It's a straight road out into the desert and upon reaching the cycle centre, where there are toilets, shops and restaurants. 

Friday's meet was another 17kms drive towards Abu Dhabi with 14kms of the road lined with these fully grown trees. There is also an equestrian centre and Babs Al Sham resort on the route. 

The water in Dubai is from desalination plants and supplies 98% of Dubai's water. The lakes are man made.

There are many trees planted and areas where other types of plants are being grown to create a new eco system.

There was also a little bit of unexpected colour if you looked hard enough.

The sun had set by the time we left to drive home. I really must take my Nikon next week and tripod and try to capture some sun set shots and more detailed photos of the wildlife.

Back in the garden, I managed to communicate with the gardener who comes for an hour every day to sweep up the ever falling leaves, flowers and water the sand to to stop it blowing around, to pick up the seedlings for me and place them on the gas bottle box so I could single them out for individual pots and then return them to the shade. I did think that these seeds would be going to waste as I can't bend down and lift things due to a bad back which I'm receiving treatment for, I've also had to up the watering to 3 times a day now as you can see the plants are really struggling by 3pm, but thankfully are back in the shade by then.

I'm hoping my back is better over the next 2 weeks before I go to Canada for 3 weeks, so I can get the seedlings planted out and fill the gaps.

Next weeks post for Animal Tales involves looking for kennels and a cattery for when hubby and I are both out of the country in September. For HDYGG I'll be visiting a garden centre and looking for some plants I can grow indoors and for Time Traveller I'll be writing up about the Dhow Cruise Dinner and Desert Safari I've booked to take child 4 of 5 on, he'll also be joining me back out in the desert with Bob next week.