A Little Valley (Combe) of Wild Flowers!!! One of our picnic spots near our favourite UAE camping spot, Wadi Showkah, Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE -- Mar 2024
Well, well, what can I say, it has been raining on and off in the region from March till earlier this month. Nice for a change. Last year (2025) has mostly been dry, and hot, and dusty. Rain cooled down the weather (but sheesh! I can’t friggin count how many mosquito bites I’ve got since the rain started…).
I’m sure the wadis will be flowing by now, and wild flowers will carpet the normally barren landscape. We would have gone camping, multiple times, …if only, there wasn’t a stupid war going on (yup, it’s still on, despite the ceasefire, and nobody knows when it’ll end (except Trump, maybe. ‘He can feel it in his bones…’, he said)). Alas, that’s life. Sometimes, you just have no choice but to put up with dickheads, and in this case, their boss.
Anyway, here’re some photos of our favourite UAE campsite, Wadi Shawka (or Showkah, whatever you prefer), from about the same time in the year, but in 2023, and 2024, when the wadis flowed and the flowers bloomed! (What about 2025? Sorry, haven’t sorted out that lot yet). Enjoy!
A mountain pond, up on the hills, near our campsite, on our 3rd visit (and second time we camped overnight), Feb 2023
It’s a wild flower fest! A spot near our 2nd campsite
On the track to the rock pools, Feb 2023
2024 was also a wet year! Wadi Shawka, Feb 2024 (our 4th visit)
The pool that saved my live! I finally decided to swim in it, voluntarily! Unlike in Dec 2021, on our first ever overnight trip there, when I fell in! Luckily, it was deep, and I escaped unhurt! (But the Redmi7 phone which I was carrying wasn’t that lucky…), Feb 2024
The high road over the rock pool… We didn’t know this route, that bypassed the rock pool, existed on our first visit. That’s how I fell into the pool, while climbing down on the return journey (nothing happened when we climbed up). Was lowering Jayden onto the ledge below, and then I lost my balance and sploosh!!! Into the pool I went!
Water isn’t the only attraction in Wadi Showka, there’re miles and miles of hills to climb. We made our first hike up the hill tracks towards the dam (Shawka Dam) on our 5th visit, Mar 2024
Our fourth campsite (6th visit), beside the flowing wadi, Mar 2024… Reversing through the rocky wadi wasn’t such a good idea after all. It damaged the car’s front splash shield (i.e. the engine’s bottom cover)…
Another wadi-splashing time, Wadi Shawka, Ras Al Khaimah, Mar 2024, on our 7th visit! (Yup, we visited the wadi 3-weekends, in one month!)
And then came the big flood of Dubai! (in April 2024). This photo was taken a few weeks after the big flood, on a day trip to see how it affected the wadi, May 2024 (our 8th visit). That path, which crosses the water, was still passable!
Looks like we’re not the only ones checking out the damages! Wadi Showkah, Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE, May 2024
That’s all for today, gotta get back to work. Tons of it waiting, gotta finish it this friggin week!
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