I copied my post on my uae sup blog for this one, just another weekend in the UAE!

Four paddlers from Abu Dhabi took to the road early Friday morning with a crazy idea to paddle the entire UAE in 36 hours. Of course this didn't mean paddling the whole way around the Emirates, but at least making a stop in each one.Cars packed with our portable C4 isups, it was such a treat to actually drive around 140ks the whole time instead of adjusting our speed because of boards on top.

1st stop was Dubai. The plan was to get there early enough to be out on the water to watch the sunrise with the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in the background. It definitely was a chilly start to the day, but well worth the early drive to see the sun come up with the shadow of light reflecting against the Burj.


We drove up to Ajman, where to our surprise.... was some proper surf happening! We thought about ditching the idea of our 7 Emirate paddle to play in the waves the rest of the day, but we all decided we had a mission to do. 3 hours was enough, right? Empty waters, just us out there and while there is no swimming allowed the police didn't seem to mind that were surfing! We even got our pic snapped and our names taken by an Ajman freelance journalist, not sure where that photo ended up.


After Ajman continued north to Umm Al Quwain in search of our sea turtles. Unfortunately, there were no sea turtles, but plenty of flamingos! We paddled here for about an hour against a strong wind that was starting to pick up. I think we were a bit disappointed by the lack of marine life here especially with all the coral. Oh well.


Our last stop on the West coast was Ras Al Khaimah. It was about 4pm by this time and the winds were really up, waves were choppy and it was cold! At least for UAE and us wusses who have been here way too long. We got our our boards pumped them up for the last time Friday and hit the water. While we can pretend we enjoyed this paddle and stayed out there long, in reality we were done in about 20 minutes and were on our way out in 25.




We drove across the country to the East coast where we arrived in Fujairah near Snoopy Island to camp for the night. We set up camp, enjoyed some real sausages (pork!) on the fire and drank a few well deserved beers! Buggered from a day of driving and paddling that started almost 14 hours earlier, we were ready for bed. Unfortunately we didn't realize that at 1 am we were in the direct path of the fishermen who were bringing in their lines and nets for the day. Eventually we all fell asleep.


In the morning we got up extra early before the sun came up to get the boards pumped up and headed out for another sunrise paddle to Snoopy Island. Our sunrise paddle was followed by breakfast (reheating left over sausages) and warming up by the fire. By 7:30 we had paddled 5 Emirates and only 2 more to go.


Around 9:30 we took off after we explored more of the marine life around Snoopy Island and headed south to Khorfakkan, which is technically Sharjah. We paddled out to a beach that is only accessible by sea while taking in all of the fish swimming below. Again no sea turtles, shame. About an hour later we were all deflated and packed up ready to make that long drive back to Abu Dhabi for our final Emirate!


We arrived in Abu Dhabi and while we had planned to get some good shots of the Mosque between the bridges, there was a sandstorm and was far to hazy to see anything. This combined with the fact that we were running late and I had a lesson at 19th street beach, made this the location to finish her off! So at 3:30 just shy of 36 hours we paddled in Abu Dhabi and celebrated conquering all 7 Emirates. Next time? 24 hours ? possible, but I think these two days were busy enough.

I am thinking Nick got pretty spoiled this year with his birthday and Christmas. Thanks to my mom and dad we got to experience an amazing night at the desert resort, Qasr Al Sarab on Christmas Eve. A bit of an upgrade to our tent camping the night before, we drove through the amazing dunes of the empty quarter on the way to the resort. The resort almost blends in with the dunes close by, but when you finally arrive it's a site to see. It's so tastefully done and I absolutely loved the design and intricate details throughout the place. We arrived in the afternoon and headed straight to the pool bar for a drink while we waited for our rooms. Nick didn't know that Stew and Maggie were going to be joining us for Christmas Eve, so it was a surprise when we swam over to the pool bar and there they were with drinks in hand.


We got to our room, which had a beautiful view from the balcony of the desert and slowly got ready for the Christmas Eve Dinner watching the sun set behind the dunes.


Christmas Even Dinner was a buffet at one of the restaurants, I was surprised as they were in fact playing Christmas songs. Most hotels here are decked out for Christmas, but this one wasn't so much, just a few little decorations nothing too elaborate. The buffet too wasn't very Christmasy with Turkey, stuffing, etc. Instead I think we all mostly ate the sushi. Wine and beer were included in the price of the buffet so needless to say we took advantage of that and found ourselves both asleep by midnight. Although, I did manage to call Mom and Dad and wish them a Merry Christmas for the following day.

We woke up in the morning and opened the presents that Nick's parents sent along on Skype, the others we waited to open them under the tree at home.


In the morning we hiked up the big dune just next to the hotel and had a great view from up high, had to be one of the taller peaks in the area.





Checkout was at 12, but managed to stay till 1 where funnily enough we found out that one of my friends Desiree and her husband had been staying there the same night, but did manage to see them at the entrance on our way out.





On our way home from the desert, I had one more surprise for Nick. He's been talking about how he's wanted a rabbit for a while now and just so happened that a friend, Don was looking for a new home for his since his 3 year old daughter just couldn't play nice with it. So I said well, it's his birthday, it's Christmas, I'll take it and surprise Nick. We picked up young Jack on the way home Christmas day and while we didn't put him in a box under the tree he did enjoy jumping in and amongst the presents.







Christmas evening we drank hot chocolate, opened our presents...I think both of us did alright this year! And finished the night watching the Christmas episode of Glee...cheesy I know.

Well for Nick's big 3-0, we had to do something special....something special every day of the week before he turned 30. We continued celebrating his birthday in style..out in the desert that was followed by Christmas Eve at the amazing resort Qasr Al Sarab for a night.

Each day I gave Nick a little clue about what were going to do for that day then we headed out after work to have some fun.

Sunday, we went golfing at Yas Links

Monday, I gave him a new football Jersey as he plays on Monday nights at Zayed

Tuesday, we went to the shooting range and shot 9mm guns, Nick's a sharpshooter with plenty of shots on target!


Wednesday, I surprised him with a night out at Aloft Hotel where some close friends all joined us including a couple called Moet and Chandon who showed up and we didn't have to pay a thing for them!


Thursday (his BIRTHDAY) we went out to the desert with our friends Jess and Andre and Stew and Maggie to quadbike and spent the night in some traditional tents (but they had beds in them), wasn't exactly roughing it. We had a traditional bbq dinner, got some henna tatoos, rode a camel and the company we went with was great as they set up a private little spot on the dunes and arranged a cake for Nick. We sat under the stars, opened gifts and drank a few beers (that we snuck in ) late into the night.



Friday, we got up and instead of going back to Abu Dhabi we drove to the resort Qasr Al Sarab for the last of surprises for a beautiful Christmas Eve with our friends Stew and Maggie. This was more of a Christmas present though.