Discovering the beaches in Abu Dhabi

Don has to go into the office for half a day every other Saturday but this past weekend was his Saturday off, so we decided to track down the best beach to swim at. We tried the public beach in the morning. When we got back to the apartment, we saw our neighbors who were off to the beach, and they told us about a little beach just at the end of our street (it's a long street). Takes us 5 minutes by car, to get there, so we were delighted to discover this. It will be great for Don as we can go for a quick swim when he finishes work, as well as on a Saturday. We have spent many Saturdays working on getting the apartment set up, but we can finally see the end in sight, where we can do some sightseeing and Don can have more leisure time. We are looking for someone to come and put up our shade cloths on the the back and front patio, (always takes ages to get things done) and then we are pretty much done. Feeling pretty comfortable in the apartment and enjoying the convenience of living in Al Mushrif. Not too far out of the city, but has a suburban feel to it, and a lot less traffic. And a beach 5 minutes away!

Sun, sand but no surf

The island city of Abu Dhabi is surrounded by the azure blue, calm waters of the Arabian Gulf. However, public beaches are few. Many of the beaches are private, attached to the hotels. Some are restricted "ladies only", men only allowed to swim there if they are with a woman or family.

Abu Dhabi has a subtropical, arid climate that is blistering in the height of the summer months. We have had a lot of days where the temperature is over 40C and we have been told it can reach 50C in the hottest months, June, July and August. The white sandy beach looks inviting, but the sun is so hot, you won't see too many people sitting on the beach. You go straight in for a swim and then out and leave. We swam and then stood in the water for ages, but made sure we wore our rashies and hats.

Waiting for the Wave

The water at the beach is the temperature of a warm bath. It is an azure blue, flat and calm all the time. Looks lovely, but not quite the same as swimming in the refreshing surf at an Australian beach.

The Date Picker

Spotted this man picking dates across the road from the villa which we meet in for church. Usually the local people don't like to be photographed but he had his back to me. I have learned to carry my camera with me as you never know what you might see, in this often fascinating part of the world. Life here is such a combination of the old and the new. In the left hand corner, you can just see a crane, an indication of all the new buildings going up in this progressive and modern city. But at the same time, you will see a local person picking dates by the roadside.

Sharing architectural skills

Our sabbath day here is actually on Friday. Don and I work in the Nursery with the youngest of the Primary children, 18 months to 3 years. That two hours goes really quickly as we rotate through numerous activities, to accomodate their short attention span. Don says that it is his exercise for the week. If we can teach even a small thing each week, we feel a great sense of accomplishment.

Our Sunday which is actually Friday