Our visit to Liwa

Bob on the BIG dune

Where we stayed... nice!

Another pic of the Big Dune. It was a VERY hazy day and we were nomads.

This is a "house" somewhere out in the desert. You can't see it, but there is a truck parked in there that is part of the house. They certainly know how to "make do"!

I love this house gate! The patina and metal design is amazing.

This is a picture of the marinet part of this little mosque in a suburb of Liwa. So ancient looking. I love the look of these older mosques; simple, remote places of worship.

This donkey and shelter were literally right off the road about a 1/2 mile from a bedouin camp. He wouldn't let me get up close. I guess he doesn't get many visitors~hehe!

Isn't this colorful! LOVE it! Wouldn't you like to be greeted every day with this gate?!

This is a picture of the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia. Just vast amounts of dunes. Fascinating in a crazy sort of way.

Another colorful gate and on the right is a pretty good representation of the houses in this neighborhood.

Last weekend, we decided to get out of the city and go to a place that we had not been here in the Emirates. That place is Liwa, which is in the western region of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. As we were getting closer to Liwa, the landscape was so lovely and green. It was so great to see all of the date farms and beautiful green areas surrounding these farms. It was a bit of an oasis out there and I knew this was going to be a great adventure. We arrived in the evening so the sun was just going down and that sunset was amazing. As you drive into Liwa it is very quaint, having no tall buildings but many little subdivisions or neighborhoods. I also found that Liwa is the original home of the Al Nahyan family who is the ruling family of the Abu Dhabi Emirate and now of the entire UAE. I have attached a little article about Sheik Zayed who the local Emiraties revere and love for his forward thinking and his uniting of the Emirates. The Abu Dhabi of today is largely credited to him. He had such a  great vision for this oil rich country. So if interested, you can read the article~~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayed_bin_Sultan_Al_Nahyan
 Liwa is just a short jaunt from the Saudi Arabia border and has some of the largest sand dunes in the world; it is very picturesque. We stayed in a lovely hotel and then got up early to take pictures of all the sights. I love going through the small typical  neighborhoods~ love it! They all have stone/cement walls that surround their homes to protect the privacy of the women. Some of these were big mansions and palaces for the ruling families, others were places that might seem pretty unhabitable but that is just how many of them live~ a very simple, desert life~ even bedouins in tents. We spent most of our time out in the dunes. In June, Liwa hosts a huge 7-10 date festival which is said to attract thousands of people since we were in the US, we missed it. But next year we are definitely going. Because we went on one of the hottest weekends of the year (1st week in August is notorious for hotness) we were the only ones out in this part of the desert. The largest dune is called Tal Moreeb Hill or Scary Hill. I'm not sure why it is called that as I didn't think it was too scary ;-) It was super hot out in the desert; probably 125+. I had never been in that kind of dry heat and it was so exhausting. But we hiked around a little and were hoping to climb up to the top of this dune but it was just too hot and the sand was like walking on fire. I wore my Keene sandals and the sand would get into my shoes and it was sooooo painful. I will need to remember to wear my keds next time. The pictures are of Moreeb Hill, Liwa area, some of the metal and wood doors that are an entrance to individual yard/homes,a donkey in the middle of a bedouin area, camels and of course, the amazing desert of Saudi Arabia and the western Emirate.