Friday, December 12, 2008- Fossil Hunting

Fossil Hunting

Well we have not yet gone camping on our Eid break- This is the second and more important of the two Muslim Eid holidays. During this Eid Muslims make a hajj or pilgrimage Mecca. Anyway we had just gotten our apartment two days before the vacation so we knew we would be spending a lot of time getting the place together during vacation but we also wanted to do some camping. But so far we have not been able to organize this part of this is my fault for not taking the lead.



What we did was go over to the hills in Oman to do two day trips. On the first trip (I think it was Sunday) we got a late call. It turns out my buddy from Abu Dhabi I thought I knew the area and was expecting to meet up with us out there. Anyway we ended up meeting up with them for lunch at a nice spot in the hills. It was a neat spot because you got the rocks and hills but you also had some nice sand dunes tucked right up to the hills. So the kids could play on the sand dunes and we could see the hills. We let the kids play for a few hours while we ate and chatted. I did some minor rock climbing up the hill but nothing serious. After a while we went over to the valley that had the fossils. Fossils were easy to find and the finds were nice we picked up a half a dozen fossilized shells. Then we went exploring the waddi. Wadis are dry river beds that cut into the hills and plains of the region. When it rains they run fast – I hear as it has not rained since we got here in August. Well the Wadis can be pretty boring like the ones in town or they can make these canyons which are very cool to explore. So we explored tow of these. One of the kids out made me look I was under control she was all over the place and it was difficult at times to keep my eye on her and the other children as she was much faster. But in the end it was nice explore and I have attached pictures of the hike.



On the way back we took a different border crossing and went over to the Al Ain gulf club, which consist of a dirt track of land with 18 holes of golf. It was kind of surreal as it is a “golf club” with no grass. I guess you have to bring your own green to play. You lug around a piece of Astroturf to hit your ball. Well we Had a few beers here and then as it was cold and I had shorts and a t shirt on I decided to go change before we went on to food and more drinks. But as is usual once you break out of the group things tend to fall apart. In the end we dashed around looking for them but gave up and went home and had Pizza Hut.




Shark Tooth Hunting

A few days later we meet up to go shark tooth hunting. Now this place was pretty easy to find and I will probably go back and take some other families with us. The fossil hunting place I would not find again on my won but then again you are not supposed to go on your own as your car can get stuck and you need someone to help get it out. Anyway we spent the morning slowly climbing up the hill looking for shark teeth at first it was hard as I did not know what to look for but now it is easy you kind of get used to seeing them. We found about 12 teeth we could easily chip out and take home. We now have a nice collection of them.



The best part of this trip was the ride home. Again we went to the border going to the golf course. Oman is not as concerned about its border with UAE, so many places you can cross into the UAE and not pass an Omani border patrol. I guess just a few years ago the UAE did not have border patrols there either so you could drive in and out of the countries without even stopping.



So we are at the border and the place is looking pretty empty but more so than usual. We get up to the guard and he tells us to go inside. Strange as usually they just do it right there. We go inside and find two guys just watching videos on the computer. They tell us to sit down. It is a strange because this looks like a real border with lanes and booths for the border patrol to sit in and process your visa BUT no one is there except the two guys watching videos. About 5 minutes later the guy who told us to go inside comes in and tells us to follow him. We follow him out to the booth he came from (outside- drive up kind we started at) and then proceeds to process our paperwork while we are standing in the drive thought lane. I guess he was bored and wanted to play a game with us or something because it was a complete waste of time. Not complaining I thought it was a lot of fun.


Hope you enjoy the photos added to this one.


Rumptz

2 Great Hikes 1-23-09

We went out 2 days for hikes last weekend. They were both very cool hikes and I have some pictures to go along with them. But first the weather here is horrid. I was down to 46 the other morning!! At least it got back up to 72 today.

We finally got back into the grove on the Emirates Natural History Group. It turns out that during winter the group meets at 9 am on the weekends! YUCK!! But it seems that we have adjusted to the time change.

The first hike was here in Al Ain. It was great to go out to the desert and see NOTHING as far as the horizon. The drive out was along the power pylons then you turn left at one of the cross roads and before you know it you can see nothing. It was awe inspiring. The one thing I was surprised was how hard packed the sand was I had expected it to be really lose sand like when I took my mom out camping in the desert in December. But as I was told the lose sand in this area is blown into the dunes and as long as you do not drive on the dunes it is almost easy enough for a normal car. Well almost as one of the cars in our caravan did get stuck and we had to spend some time digging them out.

The reason we went on the hike and drive in the desert was to spot a prehistoric lizard. I guess these 2 foot long lizards have been around since the dinosaurs but they are dying out as the desert region is being over taken by Dubai etc. The problem is that once you try to move a species to a new part of the desert it puts too much stress on the system and someone loses out. As it was explained to us the desert is at full capacity.

Any way we did not see many animals but we did find tracks for quite a few. We saw gerbil trails and homes, and some fox tracks. We also found a lot of taped up and killed birds (duck, pigeons, seagulls) we were told that the boys do this. They use these birds as live bait for their haws when they are training them.

The best part of the day was Andrew and Ashley’s close encounter with wild camel. A camel herd was wandering though the area and Ashley and Ashley followed anther adult really close to the camels. The camels stopped but did not retreat. The woman they were with went down to a prone position and the kids did as well. Then the camels came up and smelt the woman (she was in front of the kids by a pace or two. It was a really cool experience for the kids.


After this we did some dune driving it was great as it was so wide open I did not have to hold the steering wheel to drive – nothing to run into for 100 miles. Then we ended up in a spring in the middle of the desert only it was too salty. It was so salty the whole place was covered in thick salt crystals. Then it was a short stop on the way back to sight a newborn camel. We also stopped to clean up some trash that was left by the people training the falcons. Sad that they leave their trash in the pristine desert like this.

Day 2 To the Bat Cave!!!

We took a lovely drive out to the mountains of Oman on Saturday. We parked at the rim of a huge Wadi (gorge- dry river bed) then we walked down the entrance of a falaj (water canal-aqueduct) that led right into the mountain. The way the falaj works is that it follows a spring to its source. Over the 4 thousand years (these structures are older than the pyramids) of the running of the system they have had to dig the falaj deeper and deeper as the water table has lowered. The falaj is a basically a dug out cave / canal for the water to flow down. They end up digging right into the mountain and down to 60 to 100 feet deep.

So we went into one of these cave/ canals to go look at bats, geckos and bugs! I was very surprised that the water was long. It was very cold that day and the cave / canal was geo thermally warm but I expected the water to be cold. Sadly I did not bring my camera. Anyway the cave/canal is lighted by shafts up to the ceiling- to the surface. The shafts allow workers on the surface to pull the dirt that is dug out of the bottom of the falaj. Well at some places the shafts are very far apart and it gets absolutely dark I have never been in a darker place in my life. Ashley was a real trooper and did not freak out. Well the cave/canal is only about shoulder with but at some places you had to turn sideways to get by. After about 200 feet we started to see some geckos and bats. The kids loved seeing them. I was worried they would freak out but they were really cute bats. And some of them started to fly around it was really cool to see. After about 300 feet into the mountain we turned around. Now it was so narrow that we had to literally turn around the first person became the last and last person the first. The water got so deep in spots that in the end Ashleys pants were soaking wet. When we got out of the cave she was freezing cold in the 50 weather, so we had to take here to the car to warm up. This meant that she missed the rest of the hike in the Wadi and she was bummed about that.

Andrew and I did some exploring of another falaj in the area that hung to the side of the mountain it was a nice hike and we saw some cool parts of the mountains. We then departed down the mountain to the Wadi (gorge) floor. A nice walk then we followed a stairway up to the mosque. At the mosque we looked at the sun dial and then headed into the oasis itself. It is amazing that they grow dates (you got to have dates), oranges, bananas, mangoes and many other fruits in these oases.

It was a good weekend with 2 trips out to different parts of the area we live in. I have to say living in Al Ain is great as in 30 minutes we can be in a totally vacant area with no signs of human existence.

David Rumptz