Good morning, Jebel Jais! Early morning view from our tent, Jebel Jais, Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE, Oct 2020. The view is deceivingly peaceful. But beside and around us were full of tents and cars. People come, people go, throughout the entire friggin night. Bringing their friggin high powered lamps that lit up the hill like a friggin stadium, music system that could wake a friggin village! (And tents aren’t designed to be soundproof! Know what I mean?) What a difficult night!
Camping season starts again! If only I hadn’t had that fistula, we’d be camping already. But, we’ll give this year a miss. Still recovering from that fistulectomy. The surgeon did quite a good job, I’d say. Highly recommended, if you have butthole problems like me. I sure hope it heals before we go on our trip in December.
Anyway, I’m putting some photos of our one camping trip which I swore we’d never do again… Jebel Jais, the UAE’s highest mountain. The mountain becomes a tent city at night, with people from all over the UAE driving up, and putting up their tents on wherever flat place they could find, and making it their hangout for the night. You’re lucky if it’s just for a shisha break, but some people out there have other ideas, like making it into a party hall with music and bright lights. C’mon, you can do that in your friggin home, or a friggin beach, down there! Where you lot belong.
It’s October. It’s a bit cooler. Let’s head to Jebel Jais! (But we would find out soon that we weren’t the only ones having that idea)… Quite a lot of cars, huh? (Note: this was our second camping trip of 2020 by the way. On our first trip, we ended up camping in something of a no man’s land, with no one in sight for miles… (somewhere within the Omani territory of Madha). It was a lil’ scary, but bloody cool. This time we decided to choose a place with ‘more civilization’. Let’s just say we weren’t disappointed…)
Shite! It’s a jam! We’ve not even started going up the hill!?! (You have to remember, this was Oct 2020, the COVID year, where travelling outside the country was next to impossible, unless you’re super-rich and important. Maybe that’s why there’re so many cars… But, Jebel Jais has always been popular with the local crowd, as we found out on our first trip to that area in 2017).
Whew! Luckily, we found a place to put up camp. Somebody was leaving, and we waited for them. That’s how crazy it was. The lights on the hill behind us were from the cars on the road coming up the hill. It’s like we're in the middle of a friggin city!
Good morning! Time to pack up and go. Look at the tents and cars. And some have gone earlier…
No sleep, but still looking fresh, huh? Jebel Jais, Oct 2020. If you look closely, behind us are some string lines across the ravine. I think they’re the ziplines of Jebel Jais, ‘the longest zipline in the world’. They were closed at that time
Let’s explore! Jebel Jais Viewing Deck Park
A view of the other side of the mountain… That’s the Gulf and the port of Khor Khwair, where the cement factories are, Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE
Let’s get down. There’re nicer (meaning less crowded, and shadier) spots at the foot of the hill for picnics
There we are! See, not bad? Somewhere near the foot of Jebel Jais, Wadi Bih, Ras Al-Khaimah
And there’re mountains to explore! See how small Jayden is compared to the massive hill behind!
Looking savvy, even without the sleep! Time to go. We’d better camp below the hill next time.
True enough, we kept our word, this was our camp at Wadi Bih, in December 2023. At the FOOT of Jebel Jais, hehe. So much more peaceful… (I call this place the Valley of Dead Goats. Why? I’ll leave this story for another time to tell, hehe)
And our visit up the mountain in the morning… (with no jam). Gave the kids a treat on the Jais Sledder, so called ‘the region’s longest and highest toboggan ride’! There you go!
Bye-bye Jebel Jais, Ras Al-Khaimah, Dec 2023. The ‘longest zipline in the world’ (i.e. the Jebel Jais Zipline) was operational then. See those spots in the sky? They’re the people who could fork out the hefty price of the tickets for a 3-minutes, 160 km/h zip across the ravine!
