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Published: September 10th 2012
Olive Garden
we saw this advertised up the road and he thought it was the real deal; doesn't look like it... maybe...This morning I met Matt, a doctor of geology (or, "Rock Doc" if you will) before heading out to my favorite road cut in Khor Fakkan. I was looking forward to this because I love site visits, and rocks, and I was looking forward to learning about geology in general from a former geology professor. I hadn't been this heavily involved in Geology since college and I miss it. It is starting to come back to me, but it will definitely take lots of practice and research. fortunately, dork that I am, I enjoy reading about geology.
We actually missed our freeway exit and since this is the UAE, there was no place to easily turn around so by the time we found the next exit we decided to take the scenic route - back roads. It was pretty cool; no camels, but there were lots of goats crossing our way and a bunch of tiny little towns.
We arrived at the engineering trailer onsite and, as always, he invites us sit down and chat with him - he is very friendly and I think he enjoys the company. He gave me turkish coffee, which is my second time
- and I wound up having two more during the day. I never drink coffee, but I like it! We discussed the road cut and went out with a couple of other engineers to discuss safety measures for potential falling rocks in the problem areas. We returned to the trailer, chatted more, than Matt and I headed back to the newest cut for photos. Being the hardcore, professional geologist that he is, of course we hiked up and down and across the cuts in 100+ degree heat. I haven't sweated this much since soccer last week! (Did I talk about the soccer game??? Tomorrow's blog!). It was pretty neat though. Matt was seemed to be having a great time performing experiments by tossing rocks down the cut and seeing if and where they landed in the road. A few did, but would have been diverted with a k-rail so that's good.
In the meantime, our favorite engineer had ordered us lunch and after about two hours of this hike, we returned to the trailer (around 3pm), hot, sweaty, dirty and bright red (yes, I wore sunblock - always have, always will. I like my white skin). He had ordered
a rare photo of ME
in front of Al Meshwar restaurant us lamb kebabs and I don't know if it was because I was famished or they just were that good, but they were YUM. Tender, juicy, seasoned, and grilled to perfection. Between this meal and the brunch, I have set aside my prejudices and decided lamb is good.
After lunch, we returned to the second cut, which is higher and steeper. I didn't think we were going up so I was just holding my camera in my hand and it got a little dusty (I feverishly cleaned it later!!!). But up we went. To the top. The benches in this cut were not nearly as wide and were full of gravels, making it a little more treacherous (Fugroians and Dad - please ignore!). We didn't purposely toss rocks over the side as there were workers at this time, but there were a few little rock falls. Fortunately, the benches work and none landed on the streets. Yay!
Matt is only in town for two days, so he wants to get a lot accomplished during that time. I knew today was going to be long but I was soooo ready to get to our hotel. We made a pass
by a resort hotel nearby that we're also drilling, but our tiny little car would never make it up the off roading adventure trails (see August 7th blog). Then we tried to get to a beach area for some geology question he was curious about, but we couldn't get through a highly secure area. Eventually, we headed to our hotel in Fujairah.
Oh my god the hotel is AMAZING. Nour Arjaan by Rotana - highly highly recommend it, especially for long term stays. I have my own little kitchen, staff is very friendly, and my bed is so comfy! We headed out for dinner after MUCH MUCH needed showers and wound up at this place called Al Meshwar Restaurant and Cafeteria. Very nice, pretty fancy, but I liked it. The downstairs is a "cafe" where they sell desserts and small ala carte items, along with sheesha lounging. Upstairs is the restaurant with a pleasant little water fountain in the middle. Food was good and decently priced, but not very vegetarian friendly. After the lamb today, I was looking for something light - the best I could find was steak with steamed veggies and mashed potatoes - not kidding. It
was pretty good though.
Now, I am back in my cozy little bed, watching CSI and telling you good night!
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Romsa
non-member comment
Great pictures!
Hello Pookie Thanks for sharing the photos. It looks like you had a very interesting trip.