The bustle of the Emirate’s life intricacies and the grandeur of the plans move us more and more away from the emirates we came to years and years ago. The young country that met us among oases and deserts turns into a huge metropolis of concrete, aluminum and glass.
Like a dream of Vera Pavlovna, which nevertheless came true. And it came true here. In the strangest place on the planet. In the place where the greatest and most grandiose transformation in the entire modern history of mankind took place - when the desert became a blooming garden, and the small and poor people turned into the most prosperous nation, with the most far-reaching plans in the world. And in just one generation. This is unbelievable!
But such a rapid transformation evokes some kind of sadness. Every day we are more and more lacking that distant yellow and dusty horizon. The last unexplored paths of the Emirates, which soon, and maybe not so soon, but will certainly be rolled into asphalt, are drawn more and more towards them. The wild world leaves these places. But you still have time to chat with him. When you step among the "gilding" of the current splendor of Dubai, then the scope of its new buildings delights and dazzles you. Then it begins to dazzle simply "gilding." And then this "golden blinding" becomes unbearable.
Starts to miss the shadow. Deserts. Wild oasis. A quiet night among the stars, the smoke of a fire, or just traveling to another, magical and not modern world. Into the world of past centuries.
It’s just that sometimes we all make mistakes thinking that the Emirates are only concrete, glass and artificial gardens. The Emirates is still an endless world of knowledge. Just start. Early morning, a full tank of gasoline, a map - and the road will lead you to where your leg has not yet stepped. You only need a car to see a completely different country.
And if you are driving an SUV or driving with those who already know a lot of unpaved roads, then you will see a completely different world, as if descended from a different map. And if you open it, it will be your world. Only yours. Start traveling on your own, and preferably with those who already know these roads, and you will save time searching for interesting places. And there are a lot of them!
What can you expect from such trips? I'll tell you!
One of the most accessible places to visit by car of the "wild world" in the Emirates is the Hatta area, located in the area bordering the neighboring state of Oman. Hatta is a long off-road trip of the mountain range with magnificent views, and a well-deserved reward at the end of the road! Several lakes in crevices filled with cool fresh water. The depth and size of these small ponds allow you to swim and even dive into them from a high rocky shore.
The next possible trip is an exciting trip to Kalbu across the country to the border of the UAE with Oman, on the Indian Ocean. A strange tunnel awaits you expensively in Kalbu, leading either up or down. Unexpected constructions in the mountains and the quiet city of Kalba with a bay buried in mangroves and full of turtles, and the shore of the Indian Ocean, from which flounders are caught in the winter and picnics are spent on weekends for many Emirate families.
Another, more difficult route is a trip to a waterfall in the mountains of the Omani enclave in the territory of the Emirates near the city of Korfakkan (the administrative unit of the emirate of Sharjah). The road there is difficult for a car to pass, but you can combine auto-travel and hiking, which will return you to the time when there were no signs of civilization. But all these fascinating routes can not be compared with the impressions that the transition along the mountain road from Dibba to Ras Al Khaimah brings. This is one of the most remarkable routes. You will not just move into the historical and prehistoric past, you will discover the geological past of our planet. This in itself is amazing, but it is. Part of this route runs along the dry bottom of an ancient mountain stream, which bared the imprints of events that took place millions, and possibly billions of years ago. And you can even touch them with your hands. This is an unforgettable sensation, as if a touch of time were taking place. And I even doubt that these mountains are so dead so as not to feel this touch of mine.
... On this journey, we gathered with Andrei Gorbach, one of the best guides in the United Arab Emirates. While he was collecting tourists in hotels early in the morning, we were waiting for him in Dibba. After we met, everyone advanced along the route. While we were approaching the entrance to the gorge, there was not even a suspicion that such a change in landscape was possible. Before entering the gorge, the route passes through the plain, which is occupied by two settlements with one-story modern buildings - Dibba and Daba. Both of them are located on a rocky coast, occasionally flooded with winter streams.
When you enter the gorge, it is as if you are in another country. Mountain country. The gorge is so deep that even in summer there is a constant shadow in which you can hide from the scorching sun. Sometimes the walls of the gorge are almost vertical, sometimes gentle, like hills. Rare undersized acacias cover the slopes with a rare placer. And high, high, in the opening of the rocks, the unfamiliar and unfamiliar blue sky darkens for the Emirates. The first surprise for tourists, but a familiar sight for us was a large family of wild goats, which "grazed" in the trees! Yes Yes! It is on the trees, like cats. The goats stood on their slender legs in the crowns of acacias and quietly ate, not paying attention to our motorcade.
After a while, we drove up to an old ruined barn, made of stones without mortar and cement. At this place, we were all invited to stand in silence. This is some strange, but ancient and accepted tradition in this place. It was as if we were getting permission to travel from a certain Path Keeper. That there were no accidents on the road.
While we stood, I took a small stone and threw it towards a pile of large boulders. The stone flew over and hit one of them. And a miracle happened! The boulder sang like a bell. A real bell with a long and clear voice. I had read about such stones before, but I met this phenomenon for the first time. I repeated the experiment, but hit a different boulder, and the result was an ordinary stone “buh”. No ringing, no voice. I repeated again and again. Then he explained to our travel companions what I was doing and everyone began to search for the same "singing" stones. Found three large stones, each had its own tone and voice. These were real bells! Having played simple motives on them, or rather, sounding them, we continued the journey.
We overcame bottlenecks and wide, like highways, openings, then moved along the clear bottom of a dried river, and then after one of the turns I saw THIS! Lava flowed out from under the rock! True lava, however, frozen millions of years ago! A true obsidian stream, frozen like a black glass river. It was about this frozen stream that I spoke when I mentioned the contact of time. If the rest of the rock, from which the local mountains are composed, is clearly of sedimentary origin, and represents boulders deposited on the ancient seabed. In this gorge, the whole picture of an ancient geological drama is revealed, exposing basalt and streams escaping from the bowels of our planet, which was still a baby.
I stood in front of this ancient imprint of time, and in my mind a picture of everything that happened then opened. The black planet, without signs of life on the surface, torn by internal stresses, revolved around a hot star. Lava flows flowed over its surface, some tectonic plates rammed others, rocks rose up into the sky, sulfuric fumes filled the air, and everything shook in a constant hum. Now, in front of my eyes, a crack ran through a large rocky plateau and began to increase at a tremendous speed. One edge began to climb up, and the second began to twist into an accordion. Pieces of rock burst with a deafening sound. Red-hot "bombs" flew out of the crack and carried away for kilometers. Black ashes made day at night. And from the hole appeared a formidable white river of the molten inside of the planet. A hot stream rushed down the newly formed slope towards the boiling ocean. Then he lost power. And slowly froze among the sharp ridges of completely new mountains. Already later this land was inhabited by lush vegetation and all kinds of living creatures, and then the scorching sun came again and all living things left these places. And so again and again. This frozen obsidian river was a dumb witness to those infinitely distant events.
And so I stand, and carefully touch the black surface of the frozen glass river. “What if she silently purrs with pleasure?”, I think. “Again, these short-living,” she probably thinks in response to me.
We stood a little silently at this geological phenomenon and set off again. Our trip lasted several more hours, after which we arrived at the Sandy Beach Motel on the ocean for dinner and discussed our impressions for a long time.
Late in the evening everyone returned home. Around again sparkled the neon lights of the Big City, packed in canvases of asphalt roads and braided by braids of road junctions. While we touched the wild, civilization lived its frantic life. And I knew for sure that the city during this time grew by another hundred housing units and added hundreds of meters of roads. The city grew all these seconds, minutes and hours, while the world around it maintained the greatness of untouched. And someday they have to argue.
If you decide to start traveling through the wilderness of the UAE, it is better to take individual tours with a guide. The one we usually travel with is one of the most recommended tourist guide. And we also recommend that you start your journey along the uncharted paths of the Emirates with him.
Andrey Gorbach. East Line Company. Phone +971 (50) 424-05-58
