UAE Blogposts
Liwa – Zodiac Style
Back in my home country of Scotland, the Scout Association challenges their members to “Zodiac Camp”, that is to say, camp at least one night in every month of the year. At 57 degrees north it’s quite a challenge, with freezing cold nights, rain and biting wind, not...
GCC Foreign Residents: Enter Oman For FIVE OMR For Up To 28 Days!
If you have a GGC Residency - ie a residency visa stamped in your passport from UAE, Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar or Bahrain - then those of you with approved professions*, which will be most of you, will be able to obtain a 28 day AGCC Foreign Resident Visa on arrival in...
My Favourite Abandoned Water Tanker
Next month will see the 5th anniversary of the day I was introduced to the famous old abandoned Oshkosh water truck! It has been lying deteriorating in the desert for the best part of 20 years and you will see from the photos how it has fared under the desert sun...
My Weekend In Pictures (Tag-A-Long #006)
Friday started with a particularly beautiful sunrise; a lovely prelude to a great day! After meeting my guests we set up our campsite: always put a flag on the dune above it to reduce the chance of finding a vehicle on top of your tent in the middle of the night! If...
xxAl Dhafra Camel Festival (10th Edition) – 2016
It's that time of year again! The dates - 13th to 29th December 2016 Timings - normally something to see from 8am through to the evening - can sometimes stray a little from the published schedule The place - 18kms south of Madinat Zayed, Western Region - GPS N23.54116...
Trip Report: Desert Diva Tag-A-Long Tour #3: National Day UAE
It was the UAE's 45th National Day and everyone in the country had a day off! Instead of the usual one night camping expedition style trip we put together a 48 hour, 2 night camping trip with some smooth offroad driving past some wonderful desert terrain as well as a...
Tag-A-Long Desert Expedition (04-11-16)
Event #002 - date Friday 4th November 2016 Start Point: Al Ain South (approx 90 minutes from Abu Dhabi/Dubai) Briefing Time: 1445 hrs Move off Time: 1500hrs Finish Point: ADNOC #660 Abu-Dhabi to Himeem Road (approx 1 hour from AD, 2 hours from Dubai and 2.5 hours...
Tag-A-Long Desert Expeditions (21-10-16)
Having received a number of requests to join me on one of my expedition trips in the Liwa area I am pleased to announce an itinerary for my first one. Event #001 - date Friday 21st October 2016 Start Point: Abu Dhabi to Himeem Road (approx 35 minutes from Mafraq...
Rahaal Racing
The cool season is upon us and although we go to the desert year round, the best time to visit is early winter or spring. Here's a clip of my beloved Rahaal stretching his legs in the desert. Big thanks to Clive Delves of CD Productions for capturing this footage...
Summer in the (Oasis) City
The majority of Westerners tend to head out of the UAE for at least a month each summer, in fact many expat wives and children head to cooler climes for 8-10 weeks, dependent on school holidays of course. I was lucky to get home to Scotland for a couple of weeks in...
Liwa Date Festival Photo Competition
The Liwa Date Festival is running until Saturday - you might have seen my blog about it last week. They are running an instagram competition and I've put in 12 entries - would love if some of my instragram-account-owning followers could like their favourite(s) - or...
Madinat Zayed’s Best Electric Retailer
I am writing this post mainly for the residents of Madinat Zayed, however if you are camping/offroading in the area and in need of a torch then please read on. I needed a new washing machine when we arrived here last December and thought I might have to go to Abu...