The road ends at the only hotel (just further up is a palace owned by a sheikh) and I have to say the view of the city is quite impressive. We quickly checked in, the girls bounce around in the hotel room and then we headed outside. The pool was a bit too crowded so we hung out at the playground, which was good enough to keep the girls occupied for a while. Maybe it was the altitude (or the fact that Sera was still under medication), but we struggled through dinner and we all crawled into bed at 8pm! Ha ha. It's almost embarrassing to admit it. But we all woke up at about 6am feeling very refreshed (at least Johan and myself) and raring to go.
Johan and I decided that we are definitely breakfast people, so it was wonderful to dig into a good breakfast buffet spread. After a satisfying breakfast, we headed to the almost empty pool to sink. ha ha. Johan had a good time on the three pool slides. We had no success getting Sera on any of them but Johan took Yas on two of them. She was a little terrified but still wanted more whenever she saw Johan go on them again? So we spent the morning in the pool, huddled together after that, trying to soak up the heat from the sun.
After check out, we went to the local zoo. We were there before, with our friends Bonnie and Cyril and their boys. We remembered it as being very green and spacious, perfect for a picnic, which we had of course. Johan thought he found a perfect spot but we realised too late that we were sitting on top of several ant nests. Oh well, all part of our exciting afternoon at the zoo. After lunch, we visited with the resident animals. There was the lone gorilla who sat at the same spot at our last visit, also with his back to us. Sera had a soft spot for it and kept calling out to him for the longest time and eventually, he turned and looked at her, not once but twice. She decided that his name would be George. Ha ha. How original huh?
There was a handsome pack of wolves that got Yasmin's attention and that inevitably led into a 'woofing' frenzy from hers truly. There were lions, many different exhibits of different monkeys, an almost impressive collection of reptiles, giraffes and of course, the familiar Arabian oryx. We finally stopped and sat for many minutes to stare at two meerkats. Then we decided that we were ready to head back to Dubai.
The drive back to Dubai took over two hours. The girls, unfortunately, didn't sleep a wink! Sera alternated from singing songs from the one and only CD that we had in the car, to belting out German nursery songs. Yasmin tried to keep up with Sera, in vain. In the end, when all the fruit, rice crisps and juice were finished, Yasmin initiated a toe sucking competition with Sera. I am not kidding! The two girls were slobbering their toes and as disgusting as that may sound, it got me laughing big time. Oh dear, I think the four of us were suffering from heat stroke.
So that was our little weekend away ... it was fun, sometimes relaxing and actually a little hectic (just because it's still a lot of work for an overnight stay). But we're definitely going to do this more often.
Oh by the way, I forgot the camera so that is why I decided to make this post a little longer to make up for the lack of photos. These photos below are from the Internet ... just so you see Jebel Hafeet and the hotel we stay the night. Enjoy!
The valley before we drive up the mountain. The greenery, I'm afraid, was not naturally there but landscaped in. It's beautiful nevertheless.
The road up Jebel Hafeet had 21 turns. Here you get a nice view of the mountain road.
Mercure Jebel Hafeet
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