Al Ain, Garden City

Oasis Date Palms bearing unripe dates

It’s the last thing you expect. Al Ain is one and a half hours inland and on the edge of the vast barren Empty Quarter – an almost impenetrable desert. And yet, it lives up to its name of the Garden City. At its heart is an oasis, a large walled area filled with date palms. There are seven oases in Al Ain fed by water from the nearby Hajar Mountains, but this one is the largest. Water is distributed throughout the region by a system of largely underground channels called the Aflaj. This system has been in use for more than three thousand years.

James gets stuck - almost!

You can drive into the oasis, but only if you are an owner or a tourist, and we did. The whole oasis area is divided into lots, each surrounded by a wall – you drive on roadways set between the walls. Or at least you try to… Many paths are only wide enough for one vehicle and one pathway we went down almost disappeared, it would have been a long way to reverse…

The city itself is laced with lush green pathways and parks; green with grass, flowering bushes and trees. It comes on you suddenly, like the cartoon depiction of an oasis only much larger. You are driving through the desert surrounded by sand dunes and suddenly you’re in a tree-lined boulevard, the borders carpeted with grass.

Sheikh Zayed Reception Room

Al Ain is also the home of the Abu Dhabi royal family. The Al Nahyan family have lived here for centuries and the charismatic Sheikh Zayed, considered the father of the UAE, was born and raised here. You can see his home, now a museum, where he lived a relatively Spartan lifestyle and where he received visitors, resolved disputes and built a reputation as a champion of the people.

Al Jahili Tower

The iconic Al Jahili Fort was built in the 1890’s to protect the palm groves; its ‘wedding cake’ tower is a symbol of the UAE. This Fort houses an exhibit featuring the photographs of Wilfred Thesiger, the desert explorer of the 1940’s pre-oil era.

On the southeast edge of Al Ain, right on the border with Oman looms Jebel Hafeet, one of the highest mountains in the UAE. Its road snakes up the side of the mountain exposing ever more spectacular views till you reach the top. There you can stop and have a beer or a shisha in the Mercure Hotel as you look out over Oman.

The Green Mubazzarah

A guy at work had told me he was going surfing…

‘In UAE, with the placid Arabian Sea?’ I asked.

‘No,’ he’d responded, ‘Al Ain.’

‘In the desert?’

Yes, in the desert… Wadi Adventure sits at the foot of Jebel Hafeet, beside the lush, Green Mubazzarah, a park filled with families picnicking in the shadow of the mountain.

I’ve seen many wave pools but this is my first surfing pool; it was amazing to watch dudes bailing out of the 10 foot high waves being churned out every 90 seconds.

A Garden City indeed.

Dusk in Al Ain from summit of Jebel Hafeet