Dog Camp

Matt: Scott and Cath wanted to go camping, I know it sounds a bit like a Janet and John story, but in this case it was true. They also wanted to go somewhere the Milo and Bud could go too, the dogs. No people around, enough space for them to run free without the fear of them hitting a main road or chasing camels. Even with the expanse of the Arabian desert, it can actually be hard to find a location to camp where you're out of the way and not surrounded by other campers. Eid brings out the camper in everyone. So we gathered the troops and set off to Al Ghail to drive a little way out into the desert and fine a good spot away from the masses. Al Ghail was a good choice, thanks Lenny, because it's not big dunes so easy to access and has rocky outcroppings to shelter us from the wind, if any. Location Map. We didn't see another camp at all - great and so peaceful.

We found a good spot and setup camp, went for a little walk around the area with the dogs, but because of the terrain there was a lot of spurs in the sand and rock and the little blighters were covered in them.

Cath and Morwenna had a mini plush catering competition going on.

Scott dug a big fire pit, helps retain the heat ya know, so much so that halfway through the evening the rocks around the fire got too hot and started splintering and firing scolding hot shards at us. It was like we ca under fire. Took us a while to work out what was going on - gave us a laugh though - at one point I seriously thought someone was throwing gravel at us.

But a fun and relaxing camping trip was had by all. Milo and Bud loved the freedom and were great fun to have along. Scot and Cath? not so much... :)
Check out the pictures here.

Question: What makes a good camping trip for you?

Stairway...

Matt: Success at last, my third attempt to do Stairway was triumphant. The first time the weather turned us around just as we reached the most dangerous bit, it was too risky to complete. My second attempt I escorted a hiker off the mountain that couldn't make it, this time - was a last minute decision to go. I knew a group were going but I was supposed to be somewhere so couldn't make it. Come 4pm on the Friday, my plans had changed so I called Angelica to see if they were still going. Sure enough, they were already on route to RAK to camp out the night and start the hike early Saturday morning.

After a hurried shop in Spinneys (local supermarket) and ramming the car with all my camping gear, I was on the way. It was Eid weekend, a popular time for people to go camping, but all week the papers and radio had been warning people against camping in Wadi's as heavy rain was forecast. Ya see the danger with rain and wadi is that, the wadis in the RAK Mountains are dry steep valleys which funnel the infrequent rains down the mountain, so when it rains - which tends to be extremely heavy - you get flash floods, raging torrents of water crashing down the valleys, short but violent. Many have lost their lives to these natural disasters. So with that in the back of my mind, i set off (must find somewhere high to park the car)..

I arrived in the dark, must have been 9:30pm. They group had the fire going and we cooked, chatted and then went to get a few hours sleep before setting off early doors.
Well, not as early as would have liked, plan was to leave at 7:00am, we left at 7:50am. Roughly needing to allow 12 hours for this hike, we were gonna have to step up the pace to get back before we lost the light.

It's a pretty intense hike, climbing from 150 metres to 1400 metres very quickly. Then around the top of a horseshoe wadi and down the other side. Of note on this hike was Adrian Hayes, who recently entered the guiness book of record for completing North Pole, South Pole and Everest in the fastest time. I met Adrian on a climbing trip in Oman.

So I set the initial pace for the first 2 hours of the hike, the route that I knew reasonably well after my previous 2 attempts. Then the search for the elusive stairways began. After a couple of mistakes and back tracks we were on track and heading to the giddy heights of the summit. The stairways, to explain, are narrow rock stacks teetering on the edge of a 2-300metre drop. Not for the Acrophobics. The toughest part for me was 5 hours in, just after we broke for lunch, we had a slow hard climb up a steep face, it was exhausting and I was carrying too much. But we made it after a long grind. Then it was fun trying to find the right route down. With our 2 errors and late start, we started to worry about the time, added to this there was a massive thunder storm over Dubai, I received a number of text messages warning us of heavy rain and lightening in the city, we could now hear the roll of deep thunder a few miles away. The pace quickened. We were aiming for a large tree that was visible from the opposite side of the wadi, but things look different when you close on them and it was easy to see the tree at all times. But we eventually found it and , luckily for us, a group of Pakistani guys who were farming on the top. They were heading down and offered to guide our way. This was a blessing as the track was very tricky to follow. We reached the bed of the wadi before we lost the light, the last 30 minutes of the hike was in the dark and we were all very glad to see the cars, dry and safe. The rain had avoided us. Ten and a half hours, was a good time for this hike and we were all shattered and happy to have made it. Leg were gonna ache in the morning.

Click Here for all photos. Yes stupidly I carried my SLR all the way.