We planned to leave at 7 O’clock in the morning. I was sleeping in the living room, where I would usually end up after a ‘healthy’ Friday evening with my friends.
“Come on, wake up, we must leave, it’s already late!”
I woke up straight away, I smell as I am in the same clothes that I was wearing two days ago. I feel as though I am a ‘freak of nature’ because for some reason I don’t smell bad. Sometimes I wish that my body odour would smell bad, just to feel myself in my whole magnificence and of course I would have a reason to shower more often. I don’t have time to eat; I splash some water on my face, pick up my bag and hiking boots and jump in the car and leave. (the car is OK, or at least the screen wiper will work for sure because I fixed it)
My special friend and I are in the car together, but I have a very bad headache which is squeezing my eyes. We start to drive towards Buraimi, Oman through Al Ain, with our destination being the Hanging Gardens…
So we leave Dubai, stop for some petrol station to feed the car and ourselves and we exit the city following the Al Ain signboards on the E66 road. (From Abu Dhabi, the best way to reach Al Ain is E22 route) if you require any additional information on how to reach the destination, please contact me
Keep following the road until you reach a huge Tea Pot or Coffee Pot, I don’t know what it is for sure, in the middle of a roundabout. As soon as you arrive near the Al Ain City (or the Twister City) as there are so many roundabouts even the car starts to get dizzy! From the ‘Pot’ roundabout, go straight, third roundabout left, then straight through the 4th roundabout, from here, you follow the signs to the Town Centre until you reach a set of traffic lights. From here continue on until the next roundabout; take a left to reach another roundabout! From here you turn left and you will soon successfully reach the Oman border.
At the Oman border the formalities are simple and the process doesn’t take too long, your trip agenda won’t be affected too much especially if you are a resident of the UAE. After you cross the border, guess what is next?? Another roundabout! Don’t worry there is only two roundabouts left. Take a left at this one, you will reach a Mosque next, from the Mosque, drive for approximately two kilometers then take left towards Mahdah and continue straight until you see a sign for a Sewage Treatment Complex. If you miss the sign, you won’t miss the smell. Five kilometers on, take a right onto an unpaved Country Road, on your right, you will see some Mountain formation.That’s the place.
If you don’t have a 4×4 car only a smaller car, you will need to leave it somewhere along the side of the road, like we did. We found a perfect spot to leave it, near a smelly farm. We left the ‘Gagautza’ – as my friend used to call the car, we took the bag which had some food inside (two or three types of cheese, salami, two tomatoes, bread, chocolate, knife, small first aid kit, camera, THE WATER and one roll of toilet paper) I always like to be prepared for everything, especially for ‘shitty’ surprises, which I don’t like at all. You must always remember to take food and water whenever you are hiking!
We formed a two person military line, I was the last one, like a real knight, watching and protecting the lady and admiring the beauties of “nature” at the same time. We followed a narrow way to the mountain; the mountain was a lot further than it appeared at first. We anticipated a walk of 10 minutes but it took us 30 minutes to reach the bottom. I was close enough to the approximation; most people can count on me in these types of situations!
We attacked the beast from the north side, exactly opposite the Hanging Garden Spot. For me, the first part of the hike was very annoying, with lots of small sharp stones and every two steps forward, I stepped one back because I was sliding on the stones. But after one hour of hard work the real hiking started, which was amazing! A real exercise for the body and the soul! It was good for the body for obvious reasons and it was such an accomplishment for the soul once you reached the top to see the world below. What a wonderful feeling! The view from the top will overwhelm you; red hues of the desert, shallow mountains in the sunset feathers, with the deep blue sky and the whistling through the fluted rocks of the mountain was music to our ears. I closed my eyes for an instant and felt numb as I could actually “hear” the silence.
No way! Do you really think that’s what I felt? Take a look at my pictures and I am sure you will understand what I am saying.
I was really overweight and I was starving, I am somehow addicted to outdoor activities, but I am more addicted to food. I was amazed by the smell and the taste of the melted cheese with tomatoes. A whole world of flavors, tastes and memories from childhood scrolled through my mind. The taste of simple food is no match on top of the mountain, you need to experience this.
Anyways, we tried so hard to reach the other side of the mountain to see the famous Hanging Gardens, but unfortunately the sun was setting very quickly and we had to descend the mountain. The descending was quite impressive and we were flying like chamois from rock to rock in a desperate flight with daylight, trying to reach the car before the darkness took over. We did it! The moment we reached the car, the sun disappeared over the horizon.
Now it doesn’t matter anymore that we did not reach the Gardens. We agreed that it was an amazing day filled with some great experiences.
For me it was one of the greatest days of my life and instead of many other annoying moments on the mountain, I was really, really happy. Why I felt like this…. I am afraid I can not tell you, but it is a wonderful reason.
What I can tell you is the fact that I did lose my sunglasses somewhere on the mountain. They were a dark ‘petrol station’ style, but I loved them. So if you find them, please contact me and I will reward you somehow, maybe with a free, huge hug.