So I guess it shouldn't be surprising that a local kayaking company offers a "Full Moon Kayak" tour. For 200 AED (roughly $55) per person you get to paddle 2 miles round trip into the Eastern Mangroves Reserve here in Abu Dhabi. You can only get into the mangroves by boat, so this is a pretty big deal!
The idea was passed around at Lindsey's office & several people wanted to go. (They are an adventurous bunch, after all... They ARE all here as expats!) In total, we had 20 individuals (Lindsey & I, included) who met up for our "two hour tour"....
Getting there was half the fun as nothing really has an "address" here. The kayaking company actually emailed Lindsey the GPS coordinates, but Waze couldn't make sense of it.
Here were the directions, instead:
*From the E10, take the Ministry exit
*Then take the sign that says Local
*You will drive around to the right onto a dirt road through what looks like construction.
*Look for two guys waving....
Seriously! How could we ever get lost?!
We ate at Cafe Blanc in the Eastern Mangroves Hotel because it was reported to be "very nearby". Food was delicious. The free appetizer was edamame beans & blanched almonds soaked in ice cold water. Unusual for me, because I've never eaten almonds wet or without salt. I had hommos ("hummus" spelled differently for some reason) topped with chicken shawarma. Yummy! I can't even spell what Lindsey had, but he said it was tasty.
But no time to linger, our tour started at 7 pm. We needed to hurry.
We carpooled with 3 of Lindsey's co-workers (Sarah, Sara, & Scott) hoping that 5 sets of eyes, brains, & cell phones would make it easier to navigate.
We still got lost. Sara & Sarah had to call the kayaking guys twice. We arrived spot on at 7 pm exactly! Almost everyone was already there... But we weren't the last to arrive! Second to last.. but that's not important...
The kayaking guides already had everything ready to go.
All we needed were our water bottles, paddles, life jackets, a few minutes of basic paddling advice/instruction .. and we were off!
I didn't bring my camera, nor did Lindsey. Frankly, we were both worried that we'd drop it in the brackish water or flat out lose it all together. So all these pictures are courtesy of Rich, a guy that works with Lindsey.
That's me in the middle...
Here's Lindsey & me...
This one's a pretty good shot of Lindsey.... Notice he's the only one without any "blurring"... I guess he wasn't frantically paddling like the rest of us to avoid collision! (Kinda makes me wonder if he was causing them, instead?! LOL)
It was a fun adventure, made so in part by the "bumper car" quality of trying to keep 11 or so kayaks within earshot of our guides.
So, a little bit about the mangroves...
Mangroves are trees (really shrubs) that grow in muddy, coastal, tropical areas which have low oxygenated soil. The slow moving tides allow sediment to accumulate and the trees are characterised by densely tangled vertical straw-like roots that make them appear to be standing on stilts above the water. The tide changes (low to high & vice versa) every 6 hours here in Abu Dhabu so the trees use their roots to take in water during high tide & oxygen during low tide. The trees perform their own desalination within & excrete salt from the backside of their leaves making the leaves appear white. Seventy-five percent of the mangroves located in the UAE are in Abu Dhabi. They are an important marine ecosystem.
Amazing!
For a short break, we beached ourselves on "Fox Island" named after a family of red foxes that live there. We also found blue crabs in the shallows & spotted heron birds. One gentleman found a geocache near our pull-out point. He said he's an avid geocacher & has found over 2000 worldwide. He had kayaked these parts before & found all 5 geocache sites in the Eastern Mangroves. Wow!
So as the night progressed to near total darkness, we got back into our kayaks & finished the tour. At one point, we paddled through a school of fish that seemed like they wanted IN our boats. Several of us were surprised by the flying fish coming at us; apparently, they were attracted by our blue safety lights attached to the kayaks. Scared us half to death, none the less! No one tipped their kayak, but it was a near thing! These weren't tiny fish!! I think the guides had a good laugh.
There was some good-natured completion "racing" on the open channel & lots of smack talk along the way to go along with it! These are a great group of people & their fun-loving, adventurous nature shines through.
At the halfway point, we turned our kayaks back around & headed toward the moon. I wish I had a picture of the moon from that night; it was so big & low in the sky, almost red in appearance. It was beautiful over the peaceful water.
We had a quiet reflective (no-fish-in-the-boat) paddle back to our cars.
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