Return to his mountain domain

Matt: Having had many foiled attempts to return to Ras Al Khaimah and Wadi Bih to re-try the Jungle Book Hike (60 Metres of Rope Hike) for a multitude of reasons, I have finally managed to get back to the area this past weekend - this was a recon mission and camping trip - not a hike though.

We found a good spot to camp off the mountain track, over rugged rocks the ru... yeah I won't go on. Suffice to say the terrain was rocky. We pitched the tent with an amazing view of the surrounding mountain's - We could even see the point we reached on the original hike - miles away over a few deep gorges.

We did have a slightly scary moment up in the mountains camping though, it was late, Cris and I were sat by the fire chatting and listening to music, pitch black all around and nothing for miles.. When we heard a strange noise across the fire from us.. we switched the music off and I called out to see if someone was approaching, no response, but we could hear movement - I grabbed the torch and stepped out of the fire light so I could see better, Cris stayed close by the fire. I shone the torch around and there, a little way off into the rocks was a pair of glowing green eyes staring back at me.. then another pair and another.. there must have been 6 to 8 dark shapes with glowing eyes out there - I could make out movement, as we watched them move it became clear that they weren't goats as we thought they may have been - but wild dogs or Arabian wolves of some kind.. they moved on, skirting around our camp and passed on by slowly - We still don't' actually know what they were for sure but they never came back to investigate what food we had - thankfully.

Apart from this it was a lovely weekend trip.

The High Point: Our Campsite with an amazing view

Cris making a nice cup of tea.

The trusty Paj, enjoying the sunset

No need for words...

New Blood

Matt: Whilst still planning to return to Ras Ak Khaimah to find out where the '60 Metres of Rope' Hike went wrong, I took some new hikers a little closer to home on a nice climb this weekend. JQ, Lucy and Steve joined me to explore what Jebel Sumayni had to offer (Jebel = Mountain).

It only took an hour to get to the start of the hike and we basically carved our own path to see if we could reach the summit - again the instructions we had were too vague. We had a great hike though - Although I'm starting to think that 'hike' just isn't the right terminology for the terrain we are actually encountering - Adventure Trekking - that sounds more like it!

We never made it to the intended summit, but we followed an exciting cyclic route which took us 6 hour, with scrambling up steep scree slopes and bouldering over ginormous boulders on the way down the wadi.

Well done crew, see you all on the next hike.

Some pics...

On the way up!

Our Summit: When you reach places like this, you really do wonder if anyone has ever set foot here before: When are you giving Sharapova her hat back Steve?JQ and Lucy attempt the steep descent on the opposite side of the summit

In the bowl between the summits at the base of a huge col there was life!!

Liwa Campimg

Matt: Just back from a great weekend Dune Bashing and Camping in the Liwa Desert: Liwa is the name of a vast, almost barren desert region, that extends from the southern part of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, all the way to the border with Saudi Arabia; and south of Al Ain, all the way to the border of Saudi Arabia and Oman (at the village of Um Azumool, the most southerly village in the UAE). In the past, Liwa was a lot larger than today, and it was also known as the Bu Fallah desert. This name came from the Bu Fallah tribe, which was, and still is, the largest tribe in the area.

This is a massive area, getting lost here is not an option, you could be lost for days and that would spell trouble in the heat. Sensibly we hired a guide. So nine 4x4's in convoy ventured into the arid landscape.

The dune here are huge and so the going was slow, many times we had to stop tug, push or dig the cars out of the sand - which was extremely soft in places. The Pajero's proved themselves once more - although the experience of the drivers helps immensely. I would watch the guide car climb it's way up incredible dunes and mutter to myself, there is no way we can make it up there in this - but with a little thinking and planning - we'd always make it!! It's all about reading the dunes, measuring speed and using momentum, it's such a thrill to make it through some of the tougher stuff. I did get stuck once, I grounded the Pajero on a ridge with all wheels off the ground, I didn't have enough momentum to clear the ridge, but I managed to push the car out myself, with Fiona driving.

We drove for hours through the impressive sandscape and made camp in a sheltered bowl. Where we put up tents, built a fire and chowed down on a bar-b-que!! More driving ensued the next day.. Warning: Don't drink too much knowing you're going to have a very bumpy ride the next morning!! :-)

Here are a few photos:
The Convoy letting the tyres down.

LR3 Stuck....again.
Yep, We're going up there - look hard, you can see a few of the cars.
This was one of the difficult bits, a sharp bend on the way up a dune.
Sunset from the ridge-line above the campsite.

Click Here - for the full collection of photos

Moving on..

Matt: I guess I've left you reading the adventure long enough now, time to update!!!
Well lots has happened since I last wrote so here is a summary!

Lord Taveners Gala Dinner: I was one of the sponsors for this, it was pretty amazing to see my logo projected 12 feet high around the Ballroom. It was a big do at the Fairmont Hotel Dubai. Over 450 people showed up, including some famous names: Mike Gatting, Chris Tarrant, Sir Tim Rice, Jim Davidson, Chris Eubanks to name a few.


Went Camping to Wadi Ray in Oman with the lovely Cris: This involved navigating the wet Wadi bed (Wadi bashing) in the Pajero, such a great 4x4, finding a nice place to camp, I also went for climb up the surrounding mountains: Excellent Fun!
The Wadi bed.
Looking down to our campsite and the Wadi.


I've won a bid to Produce the DP World corporate brochure, which is great news. They are currently my biggest customer and I actually really enjoy working with them. I've also been doing work for a few agencies - Saatchi & Saatchi called and asked me to do some work for them and I work all week last week in-house at Ogilvy Memac working on some interesting projects.