Jebel Hafeet

Very hard to do Jebel Hafeet any justice at all in either words or pictures. You drive about 90 minutes from Dubai to another Emirate called Al Ain (which is a lovely place - ancestral home to the ruling family in Abu Dhabi, and quite green in many places). It's always less humid here, but often hotter. Anyway, you drive through the city of Al Ain and get to Jebel Hafeet - a simply huge (relative to the rest of the flat desert) rock mountain. There's something kind of Ayrs Rock about the place - it is so different and seems so out of place compared to the desert.
The drive up is actually pretty sedate - we had heard all sorts of horror stories about the road, but it's dual lane, well sealed and frankly 1000 times better than any ski road I have been on in NZ. I guess, compared to the 3,4, 5 or 6 lane each motorways you drive on here most of the time (with no corners) it could be a little daunting.
We stopped partway up to look at the view - with the dry air you can see for miles and miles, and see just how high Jebel Hafeet is compared to the rest of the place - it has been a stronghold for hundreds of years.

Jaime and Alexa posed halfway up - not sure what Grandad (taking the photos) said, but Jaime certainly reacted....

There is a very nice hotel close to the top, where we had a bite to eat, and walked around a bit to look at the facilities. Just a really interesting setting - similar to many of the resorts we have seen here, but the only one at the top of a mountain!

We had a lovely lunch there. And it wasn't just lovely because we had a kids table and an adults table...

Twins separated at birth?

When you get right to the top there is a huge cobbled parking area (big enough and empty enough that Ryan, Alexa and Jaime all got turns at driving the Land Rover - a long way from the edge I might add).

From that parking area you get a wonderful view of a private residence, right at the top of the Mountain (photo below taken from a parking area slightly lower down). Absolutely amazing engineering - makes some of the houses perched on Mt Vic in Wellington look kind of amateurish.

We think the house belonged to the late Sheik Zayed - the father of the Emirates, who pulled everyone together, and created the United Arab Emirates and set the programme for development in the region. It is very clear that it's a private residence - there is strictly "No Admissiton". I bet the spelling is right in Arabic.

Truly cool place, well worth the visit.