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Welcome to the Family Homepage
of Vance, Bobbi, Glenn, and Dusty
S T E V E N S
A fanciful view of the part of Abu Dhabi where we live, and the real one:
Family Album:Click here to see photos and find out more about: Glenn's Homepage is at: http://www.glennstevens.biz/ <--and an older one is still at http://members.tripod.com/glennaldino/cover.htm--> The purpose of the material in these pages is none other than to greet and inform our friends, to entertain casual passers-by, and to welcome all into our virtual home. |
On this page: Find family members | What's new? | Life in Abu Dhabi | Recent family history | Jokes | Friends' list
What we were up to in ...
2007
Four of us together on Christmas morning, 2007. Glenn's girlfriend Gulya from Uzbekistan was with us; Dusty is spending Christmas with his girlfriend Joan in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, near Cancun, where they have been working and scuba diving after finishing a TEFL training course in Guadalajara. Vance spent part of the day rejuvenating the Webheads seasonal wiki at http://happywebhead2006-7.pbwiki.com/.
Bobbi wrote this account of a walk we made in the mountains in Oman Dec 1-2, both of us pushing 60, but still kickin' . We repeated this hike before the end of the same month. The second time we got as far as the high saddle at over 2000 meters, 1100 meters higher than the village of Sunt, where we'd left our car. It took us two days to haul our food and water up to that point. We camped there, our second night on the mountain, and were prepared to spend a third on the way back, but we somehow made it back to our car from the saddle in a single day, arriving at sundown, and back home in Abu Dhabi before midnight.
Just to let you know that we back safely from our hike. I am totally sore all over. It's a strenuous hike and we carried a lot.
We were to get away early, but Vance didn't find his GPS. He finally remembered where he put it, so we were off, leaving here after 9 am. It took us several hours to reach the Omani border. Then we spent around an hour exiting UAE and completing formalities at the Omani side. We didn't reach the village where we start the hike until after 2. We were swarmed by village kids, so we had to drive away to get our bags ready for the hike and then return to the village to park our car.
So we didn't start hiking the first day until 3 p.m It gets dark before 6, so we didn't get too far. We found a soft spot on the mountain to lay camp. We didn't have a fire, but ate sausages, bread, carrots, fruit, etc. We went straight to bed after dinner. We slept in the open, on mats, covered by sleeping bags. The stars were magnificent. I forget how many stars there are until we get away to the mountain or desert. A half moon came up, and we slept under perfect conditions, not too hot, not cold either.
We woke to the sunrise over the mountains, painting the sky in red hues. The moon was still up. It was so beautiful and serene. We knew we had a long hike ahead, so we quickly packed up and started hiking. We made it to a mountain village where we replenished our water supply. Then we started climbing more, making slow progress because of the slippery stones and the heavy packs and steep slope.
We walked for several hours when we saw that grey clouds were gathering on the mountaintop. We discussed our progess - I was very slow with a heavy pack, and we had so much to go if we wanted to make the peak. In fact, we knew it would not be possible and that we were'nt going to be able to make the peak and back to our car in time since daylight hours are short. We decided that since we could not make the peak we didn't care to sleep another night on the mountain, so we turned back. We made it to the car before dark and got back to Abu Dhabi at 10:30 p.m. As we walked in our apartment, we heard fireworks going off celebrating National Day. We had a perfect view from our balcony, so it was a nice way to end our hike. I had called and ordered Indian food which cost just 12 dollars for a great big meal.
The streets were crazy here, with people honking their horns, revving their engines, shouting in celebration of National Day. A lot of it was right under our window. We wondered how in the world we were going to sleep. Still, we were tired and sore and decided to at least lie down and read. We both went to sleep instantly, in spite of the chaos in the streets. We must have been really exhausted.
So once again, we didn't make the peak. This was the second time I've tried it, and the third time for Vance. The mountain, Jebel Kawr, is quite a challenge. Still, we had a beautiful night under the stars, got away alone together, and worked our bodies to exhaustion and still made it back in time for fireworks! A nice weekend! I'll upload the photos of both National Day and the hike and send them to you.
To see photo albums from the summer of 2007 (Spain, France, Houston, and California) click here: homepage2007.htm
