Border run done and dusted!

This morning Joel, Geoff and I set off at 9.00am on our border run, leaving Tanya and Nikau behind to have a relaxing day together. (Unfortunately this didn't go according to plan and Tanya spent most of the day feeding Nikau). It was just as well they didn't come with us, it was searingly hot , 46 degrees and sunshine that felt like the sun in New Zealand, ie burning! The scenery on the way to the UAE/Oman border was different to what I expected, with reddish sand dunes visible behind green trees planted along the side of the road.

After about an hour and a half we reached the border, pulled up next to the border control box and the man immediately said "Who is Ms Tanya"? He had looked at the number plate of the car, searched it on his computer and found that Tanya owned the car. Joel explained that he was Ms Tanya's husband and we proceeded through the border to another exit post. After about 700 metres of No mans land we arrived at the Oman border post. We handed over our passports and the nice man said because we are NZers we can stay for 3 months "rest of world only 1 month" I felt really bad when Joel told him we were doing a border run. He directed us to the other side of the room where the exit counter was. So we crossed the room and got our exit stamps for Oman. This gave me a whole new perspective on border crossing, now it was reduced to a room crossing. We hopped back in the car, did a U turn, headed back to the UAE border post, got our passports stamped and entered the country, visa now valid for another 30 days.

Border run complete we headed for Jebel Hafeet, one of UAEs highest mountains. While the view was quite hazy, the scenery around us was quite spectacular! The temperature was extremely hot and very dry. For the first time since I've been here I felt like I was getting sunburnt. We had lunch at a hotel on the mountain, a very pleasant experience only slightly marred by the fact that the floor in the foyer shook continuously as if there was an earthquake!

We stopped at the base of the mountain, where we found an old, somewhat boring dam and a very inviting looking water park.  Unfortunately we didn't have our togs with us so we could only gaze longingly at the inviting pools. ( I do know, however, that looks can be deceiving, and inviting looking pools in this part of the world are often as refreshing as a warm bath). Then it was back in the car and we zoomed back to Al Reef at a sedate 140 km per hour!