Anniversary

Exactly six years ago today, I headed to Aberdeen Airport to commence my journey to the UAE.  So far it’s been quite an adventure

Highlights

The weather – I just love warmth.  Not necessarily sun – you will never catch me lying sunbathing but that may have a lot to do with my inability to keep still – these days I start moaning about the cold if the mercury hits 20C.

My husband’s shifts – 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off mean we have traveled extensively throughout the UAE and Oman and beyond.

The cars – never in a million years could I have imagined that we would be running his and hers Nissan Patrols, certainly it wouldn’t be happening if we lived in Scotland!

The country – clean, tidy, safe.

The outdoor life – True, it is unbelievably hot in the summer, but even then it’s worth sneaking out at 5am to get a few hours driving in the dunes before the mercury hits 40C about 10am.  Similarly, end of day drives are possible year round with the bonus of a stunning sunset to photograph.  In the winter there is nothing better than driving in Liwa and camping overnight with a great big campfire to keep warm!

The people – I’ve met and made friends from all over the world, thanks to the UAE being a truly eclectic, tolerant society.  Some western expats I know rarely mix with people outwith their culture but I think they are missing out on one of the best parts of expat life.

New skills

Desert driving – passionate about it, no hobby has ever consumed me in this way before.

Patience – I’ve had to learn to be patient.  Well appear patient.  All of the time.  Perhaps some of the time.  Ok, occasionally.

Networking – I’ve honed my existing “work the room” skills to encompass bbq circles and any other social gathering where I find interesting people.  In other words, almost anywhere.  The UAE is 90% expat and each individual has their own interesting  background.

The downside is that I miss my mum, sister and my boys but it’s easy to keep in touch these days with the interweb – and it’s always nice to go back to Scotland for a visit!

So here’s hoping for another 6, or even 16!  If the business I am currently working is successful then they will be carrying me out of here in a box – hopefully not until sometime in 2063!

Progress Report: 1/2/2015

Following on from my earlier post – Personal Goals for 2015 – here’s my report card for January

Three blogposts per week minimum.

• Exceeded – uploaded 19 total
• In doing this, my blog achieved its highest stats ever.
  • January 2014, average hits per day 61.
  • January 2015, average hits per day 217
• I’d like to say a big thanks to my readers, all 2393 of you, for making this possible!

Attend to my book  (working title “The Weekender’s Guide to Al Gharabia & Liwa”)

• Currently working on a synopsis of my book with a view to approaching a publisher

Start my own company to take people on self- drive offroad tours

• Not happening yet but talking to a few people!

Accumulate enough sponsorship to enable me participate in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2016 – as a competitor!

• This is my biggest challenge, although not my biggest priority at the moment.  Who knows what I will be reporting by the end of the year!

Personal Goals for 2015

It’s too easy to let time slip by – I don’t know where 2014 disappeared to.  I love making lists so to help me focus on the year ahead, here’s my goals, starting with the easiest!

Three blogposts per week minimum.

• One will be my “Sunday Sandy Snapshot”
• The second will be on “life in the UAE/Gulf”
• The Third will document one of my adventures – even if I never leave the house before summer I have a massive backlog from last year to write about!

Attend to my book  (working title “The Weekender’s Guide to Al Gharabia & Liwa”)

• Find the right publisher for my book – may be tricky as it is part guide book, part offroad book
• Finish writing it!

Start my own company to take people on self- drive offroad tours

• Find a local tour company to partner with OR
• Find a financial backer and do it myself

Accumulate enough sponsorship to enable me participate in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2016 – as a competitor!

Having finally committed this to writing, all I have to do is make it happen!

Photo credit: Heidi Cothron

Wishing all my readers a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2015 – I hope you will be able to make your dreams come true too!

(If anyone would like to help me on the last three you can contact me on fullemptyquarter at gmail dot com.)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Warmth

Warmth from two sources. After an overnight camp in the Rub Al Khali (Empty Quarter) in Oman we rose early, beating the sunrise by just enough time to put the kettle on and get the camera focused.

Warmth

Where did 2013 go?

I can’t believe that 2013 is over – where did it go?  Never before have I had such a choice of highlights – it has been an action packed year for me and my family!

January

Woke up on 1st January in a tent in Liwa – this set the tone for my year of wanderlust.  I spend 127 nights away from home – maybe I’m turning into a Bedouin!

No sooner had I returned home it was time to load the car up and head once more to the “Wild West” of the UAE – the Magrib Desert.  My first outing deep into this area and I was amazed by the beauty and remoteness – the Liwa Crescent seems like a motorway compared to here!

February

My friend Sheena kindly let me stay in her flat in Muscat for a few days and from here I explored some of the surrounding area.  I visited the Muttrah Souq, Wadi Dayqah Dam, Wadi Maya and Sur and had a great time exploring then writing about my adventures.

March

Another busy month and my highlight was leading the support team for the first Fat Bike crossing of the Liwa Crescent.  I’ve done lots of driving in Liwa but this was so special because the cyclists were dependent on us for their water and supplies, and just being there in case something went wrong.  It took them 1.5 days to make the crossing, and later this month Ian and his team will run a “Trans Liwa Dash” covering a distance of over 100kms in just one day!

April

Another busy month, with a stint as driver for a Eurosport Cameraman on the AD Desert Challenge 2013.  Highlight of the month for me was another motorsport event  – this time in Scotland with a lovely day in the forest of Dunnotar with my boys.  The Granite City Rally has been a part of the Aberdeen Motorsport scene for years, yet I never found the time to go when I lived there!

I had been wearing this ADDC t-shirt just the week before – albeit without a long sleeved shirt and a thermal vest underneath. Didn’t need wellies in the desert either!

May

It tends to get a bit warm in the desert in the summer but in May we ran a great trip to Liwa – where we toured to look at interesting sites, dug up some desert roses and did some offroad driving of course!

June

This month I need to put in two highlights – one was a pretty bleak moment involving an over-friendly camel and this incident affected my wellbeing for the rest of the year.  Keep away from camels folks!

I was still able to drive, albeit Neil’s automatic patrol instead of my own manual shorty, and we had a very special evening watching the supermoon from Dibba beach on June 25th.

July

Since our arrival in 2009, we have traveled extensively throughout the UAE and Oman, but never taken the chance to hop on a relatively short flight to the east – this year we put that right by having a great 16 day holiday to Sri Lanka.

August

The hottest month of the year saw us celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary, then Neil went back to work and I headed to Scotland.  It was my Nairn Academy class reunion which was a most enjoyable evening spent reminiscing with old friends.

August was also the month my writing was published  – in OutdoorUAE magazine.

September

We’d been driving in Liwa right through the year (even with a camel inflicted injury) and as the temperatures cooled slightly I organised some scouting trips to establish some routes for the book I am supposed to be writing!

October

This was one of the best months – ever!  We had bought a Nissan Patrol LWB away back at the end of April with a view to driving to Salalah with two cars, offroading wherever possible.  And we did – 8 days offroading and camping with our friends led by Mike Nott saw us arrive just north of Oman’s southernmost city, followed by 7 days’ rest there, then another 5 to return home.

The return journey was a real adventure with just our two cars and 1000kms of Empty Quarter, and the feeling of achievement on arriving back to civilisation at Ibri will never be forgotten.

November

My Mum revisited us in Al Ain, this time with her partner Fred, and after showing them the local sights we trundled off to Oman.  It was wonderful to share with her the place that has captured my heart and we had the most enjoyable five days exploring.

December

This was the month of my BIG birthday and we had a most enjoyable BBQ out in the desert with friends.  Cam and Neil painted my car (with wash-off paint) in a zebra print as per my request and when I came back the finished effect took my breath away!  My Patrol Safari was a “Sooper Dooper Safari”, if only for a day!

Wishing all my readers and their families health and happiness throughout 2014!

My 2013 Writing in Print

I’ve know I’ve been neglecting my blog slightly over previous months, but only to give myself some time to travel and to get my work into print.  Here’s 2013’s offerings

Oasis Living Magazine is a free monthly magazine distributed in the Oasis City of Al Ain, UAE.  It has a wide readership of locals and expats alike, and is also available online.  They offer a “weekly breeze” newsletter as well as a good facebook page.

OutdoorUAE is a monthly magazine, the first outdoor magazine for the UAE/Middle East.  They print articles from outdoor enthusiasts across the Emirates and Oman, giving hints and tips on making the most of your time here.

Oasis Living August 2013 

OutdoorUAE August 2013

Oasis Living September 2013 – memories of a great adventure in Sri Lanka

OutdoorUAE – September 2013

Oasis Living October 2013 – my most challenging assignment to date

   

OutdoorUAE October 2013

Oasis Living November 2013 – my favourite topic!

Oasis Living December 2013 – a seasonally themed series

Outdoor UAE – December 2013 – this magazine is still for sale so here’s a taster

How Did I Get Here? Post-School Reunion Reflections

It was the Nairn Academy Class of ’75 Reunion back in August.  Our class don’t seem to hold them as often as some do, and I missed the last one back in 1993.  I haven’t lived in Nairn since I was 17 so this was the first time in 32 years that I’d had a chance to catch up with my cohorts.  It was great that so many turned up, some looked like it should be years til they hit their half century, many “hadn’t changed a bit” and were instantly recognisable, but some I couldn’t place at all!  Sadly some didn’t make it to middle age – Neil Riddell, Alan Craigie, Charlie Bain and Jackie Mathieson you are not forgotten.

After the party I reflected on how life’s twists and turns make for an interesting journey and the question – how did I get from here

to here?

When I left school I was a hotel receptionist for a couple of years, which I really enjoyed, despite occasionally working in establishments based on the Fawlty Towers business model.

I moved to Aberdeen where there were well paying jobs, and eventually I landed one a million miles away from hotels and hospitality…. the start of a six year stint in waste management, initially company receptionist then transport supervisor in charge of routing 9 skip trucks.  I loved my time in the transport department – the tasks made the most of my logical mind and certainly when I was younger I thrived on stress!

 

It wasn’t just the job that was interesting, that’s where I met Neil and became Mrs Bruce!

I only left there to have our first son Andrew, born Feb ’88.

Further stints in transport and waste management followed til we had our second son Cameron, born March ’93.

And then I started making curtains, which led to the creation of The Right Track, a move to the wonderful NE village of Strichen, and many hours selling, fitting and making curtains all over the North East of Scotland.

In 2007, Neil started working in the UAE and it was proving difficult for me to run the business and be there for the boys with him abroad. I sold the business and we moved our home to the UAE the day after Cam finished school in 2009.

Since then I’ve done some occasional online consultancy work, learned to drive on the sand and have started my own offroad club.  Recently I’ve started writing for magazines and am currently working on a book.

Oasis Living Sep 13

OurdoorUAE Aug 13

I may not have a conventional job but many days are just not long enough for me to get everything I want to do, done!

What would I tell my 17 year old self?

• Go to University and study either Art or Marketing.  Three or four years seems like a long time when you are a teenager at school but as the years pass it goes past in the blink of an eye.
• Don’t worry about being fat or ugly.  I know you think you’re both, but you’re not!
• Everyone is different: you’re more different than most, celebrate that fact and your zest for life and adventure!
• Start writing for a living once you are 30 and have enough interesting experiences to share!

Sri Lanka ’13: Kandy

Our host in Sri Lanka resides in Kandy and we were lucky enough to be a guest in his lovely home for a few nights.  Kandy is the second largest city in SL after Colombo, the capital of the Central Provice and the home of the Temple of the Tooth.  Situated 500 metres above sea level in densely forrested mountainous terrain, the weather is relatively cool in the summer but mosquitoes are a real problem if you are like me, to quote our host’s wife, “an exotic restaurant for all the mosquitoes of Sri Lanka”.

There was no air conditioning in our room so we slept with the windows open, and were occasionally roused from our slumbers from time to time by the chirping of insects, heavy rain showers, and even a cat who negotiated the window grille and ended up sleeping under our bed!

Wherever crops can be grown the land is cultivated and we saw paddy fields, though we didn’t walk through them; apparently some cobras lingered there.

We spied pepper bushes, banana plants and jack fruit trees, and pre-UAE these would have been quite alien to us but now banana flowers as well as plantains and jack fruit are available at Lulu supermarket!  It was great to see them growing in the plantations!

We visited the Temple of the Tooth on a “full moon” weekend which meant it was very busy – every time there is a full moon the country has a public holiday!  I would love to go back again when it’s a bit quieter.

Afterwards took a short walk to the Garrison Cemetary which though small, was very interesting.  The guide gave us lots of information about those who lie there, stories of malaria, jungle fever, foolhardy adventurers and unfortunate encounters with elephants!  There were one or two names there from our native Aberdeenshire, possibly tea plantation managers!

The highlight of our visit to Kandy was a few hours spent at the Royal Botanical Gardens, had it not been for the temperature and the monkeys running around it would have been easy to believe we were in Edinburgh!

There were many different species of Bamboo dotted around, some can grow up to 30cms in a day; we didn’t hang around to watch it though because it started to rain!  Did you know that both bamboo and the palm tree are classified as grass.

The gardens have an amazing collection of orchids and although it was past the peak flowering season, there were still many beautiful blooms to admire.

While we were in the greenhouse it started to rain again and we were very glad of the shelter – for 15 or 20 minutes it was like someone up in the skies was pouring a bucket of water over the gardens!

It wasn’t just the plantlife we found interesting here, as I’ve mentioned earlier there were plenty of monkeys jumping around from tree to tree and also a vast number of enormous bats.

All in all it was a great day out and we took “tea on the veranda, overlooking the lawn” in true “colonial style.”

You will be able to read an overview of our epic trip around Sri Lanka in the September edition of  the Oasis Living  magazines.

 

A Way Too Close Encounter of the Camel Kind

 After a grand weekend’s driving in Liwa we stopped to say hello to some camels. 

 This one was very friendly…

Loved the ear massage I gave it

Got up close and personal with my friends

And then when it was time to go, it wanted to come too – and thats when the accident happened!

As our party of five headed towards the cars, I heard it right behind me, so took a step to the left so it wouldn’t collide with me… just as it took a step to the left for the same reason.

It knocked me down then I had the horrendous view of its hooves only inches from my head as she tried not to put her weight on me. Thankfully she succeeded but I am still left with a few sore bits and a couple of big bruises.

You can’t believe how solid a camel is and how easily they can knock you over – although a small female I reckon she still weighed about 300kg. 

I can’t believe I am lucky enough to walk away with only minor injuries; a camel can kill with a kick, though generally that’s an angry camel, not an over-friendly one.

This hasn’t put me off camels at all, though I will exercise a bit more care when around them.  The worst thing about this episode is that I am basically housebound for the week and I won’t be doing any serious desert driving for a few weeks!  But at least I am here to tell the tale!

Photos by Marie Huggins – thanks for letting me use them!

Sand and Water Highlights of 2012

For me 2012 was the year that passed at warp speed.  Every time I looked at the calendar another month seemed to have passed by!

January: 

Having officially become “empty nesters” after Cameron’s return to Scotland to live with his Groovy Gran, we took advantage of our new found freedom to do some long distance driving.  Top moment in January for me was a trip to Liwa.We even got up early one morning to take some sunrise shots! 
February: 

 Another busy month with lots of offroad driving, the highlight for me however was a UAEoffroaders trip organised by JC.  We had to travel from point to point, picking up tokens, and at some stops had to take part in challenges, such as building sandcastles.  This trip was brilliant because it was offroading with a purpose; over the last year I’ve fallen out of love with dune bashing just for the sake of it, these days I want to aim for a goal, such as teaching beginners some technical driving skills, or to have the convoy reach a destination or to drive a set number of kms in a day.

March:

 Saw us driving in Liwa again since we were desperate to get as many trips in before the 
“season” ended in mid-April.  You can’t drive in Liwa in the summer, can you?

April:

No competition for best week of April!  This month sees the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge come to Liwa.  Neil, Vince, Wallie, Raynie and I were lucky enough to be Marshals at this event. Stuck out in the desert for a week, unpaid for your labours, rough camping in the desert or the bivouac and scorching sun – I had a BLAST, can’t wait til this year’s one!

May: 

Cameron came back for a holiday!  We dragged him up to Khasab, Oman, as well as down to Liwa.   Highlight of the trip was seeing the dolphins on the dhow trip – although we have seen them five times before, there is something very magical about seeing these majestic animals in the wild.

June:

Cameron was still with me when Neil returned to Das Island, and on his last day in the UAE a friend invited us out on a sailing trip. A new experience for both Cam and I, we had a brilliant afternoon and seeing the Dubai skyline from a different vantage point was amazing!

July:

Our first – but hopefully not our last – visit to Salalah in the Kareef.  17 degrees north of the equator, 7 degrees south of Al Ain, and only 21-29C in the middle of summer!  Thousands of GCC citizens flock here between June and September, and we urge every expat to come here at least once!  We had rain on a few days, and the heavy monsoon rains started the day we left.  This was also the month I started seriously blogging!


August:

A trip to Liwa with two cars at any time of the year can be considered slightly dangerous; we went in the hottest month, which was also the holy month of Ramadan this year, although we tried to minimise the risks as much as we could.  We had the most amazing time, and being Ramadan, we had the desert all to ourselves.  It had even rained so we had wet sand to drive on in some areas!

September:

We had another foray into Oman, on a three centre, nine day break which spanned September and October.  My favourite part was Masairah Island, it was relaxing but plenty to see and do, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves.

October:

Found me in Liwa again – running a special trip with some friends.  It was the Liwa Virgins and Veterans trip, and we had a blast.   Two days, 200kms of offroad driving, one night camping, one night hotel.

November:

The highlight has to be founding  Oasis Offroadwith my marshal colleagues Neil, Vince and Wallie.  We liked our old club and the people in it, but wanted to do something a bit different with more tuition for newer drivers and the focus on driving in the Al Ain area.  I also hoped to find some potential overlanding addicts to come with me on longer, destination based trips – I’m pleased to say I’ve got lots of sign ups for my first such trip next weekend!

December:

I couldn’t believe the last month of the year came round so quickly.  My favourite day was our trip to Sur.  There’s plenty of pictures of the boatyard on my other blogs so for this month’s photo I choose the visit to the dam.  Such a beautiful place and so quiet – on a weekday anyway!

So there you have it – my 2012 in sand and water!

• If you like this blog please “like” my new facebook page .  As well as blog updates, additional content and photographs will be uploaded regularly.
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• And lastly, if you would like to drive out on the sand with me, please join Oasis Offroad!