Bye Bye Dubai?
My girlfriends all giggled when I told them I was off to somewhere called Fujairah (pronounced Fu-JAI-ruh), but this Middle Eastern emirate is the home to a whole host of desert and sea adventures without the hustle bustle and glitz of its better known sister Dubai
I've never had much desire to visit the Middle East. My more affluent friends have sung the praises of Dubai to me on many occasions (a place, it would seem, where all that glitters most probably is gold), but rumours of constant development and high-end consumerism have always kept me away.
So when fate landed me at Dubai airport, awaiting my pick-up to the neighbouring emirate Fujairah, in the dense heat with the echoing sounds of the call to prayer ringing eerily through the air, I felt an increasing sense of curiosity and intrigue.
I was staying at the le Meridian Al Aqah Beach Resort in Fujairah, approximately 1 hour 45 minutes from Dubai airport, a time soon to be greatly reduced by the development of new roads connecting the two emirates. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) formed in 1971, and is a state consisting of 7 independently governed kingdoms, or emirates. Each of the emirates is ruled as a sovereign state, lead by the head, or Sheikh, of the leading family that first settled there.
Fujairah is unique in that it lies on the eastern side of the UAE, along the gulf of Oman, while its six siblings are situated along the Arabian Gulf. Because of its positioning, the Fujairan coast enjoys a pleasant climate, calm clear seas and - with the imposing Hajar mountain range dividing Fujairah from the rest of the country - an impressive towering backdrop, in place of the vast desert landscapes of its neighbours.
One of the highlights of my trip was an excursion into the desert organised by the hotel with activity company, Arabian Adventures. We were taken to the Margham Desert and the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve in 4x4s with our safari guide, Marvin. Here I got my first true taste of Arabian desert, amid rolling monochromatic sand dunes, pockmarked only by the occasional camel wandering snootily past my window or munching on the odd acacia tree that punctuated the arid backdrop.
At the entrance to the reserve we met up with around 20 other 4x4s. I didn't understand why we needed to travel in convoy at first, but I soon found out. The journey across the sand dunes deeper into the desert was an exhilarating rollercoaster ride as our highly skilled guide navigated his way up and down the dunes - one minute flying upwards to the summit, and the next sliding down the other side with our stomachs left some distance behind. A couple of times one of the 4x4s got stranded on the apex of a dune, listing precariously like a grounded ship, but giving us the perfect opportunity to step out onto the sand and take in the incredible surroundings while Marvin went to the rescue.
En route we stopped at a camel farm, and took coffee with the Bedouin leader who was dressed head to toe in traditional white robes and headdress. He had a dark, mysterious face with deep crevices that spoke volumes of both his lifestyle and his authority. Since the emirates independence, the Bedouin live in improved conditions as the government provides them with housing and money to develop and install essentials such as air conditioning in their homes. This tribe however, still lived in the desert and bred camels, which - thanks to the popular Arabic camel racing tradition - can be a relatively lucrative business. So taken with the magic and mystery of the desert was I that when this dark, mystical (and clearly financially stable) man offered Marvin three camels for me, I was pretty chuffed... if not a bit tempted.
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Created: 29/07/2005 Updated: 20/10/2005
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