[RC] Linda in Abu Dhabi - Day 4, part 1 - Jay Randle
Hi Everybody
Slowly catching up on the activities. Yesterday saw me up and at them by 5.30 a.m. I’ve been neglecting to tell you about the joys of my shower – barely warm water is about the best that I can manage. I’m been telling myself to ‘suck it up Princess’ and bear the pain but I would kill for a hot shower just now. But, it is teaching me efficiency in the shower routine and that it doesn’t take 10 minutes to wash hear, cleanse the face, exfoliate and wash!
Today’s activities include a return trip to the shopping mall to finalise our shopping and the trip to the Emirates Palace motel. Penny came out riding with us today and the girls decided to do the training loop in the reverse direction this time. So they all headed off down the finishing chute. Naomi and I were doing our usual, driving alongside chatting when Kalahari picked up some movement from afar. We decided to go and investigate so zoomed off in the car to see a herd of camels just wandering around all over the training tracks. There would probably have been about 40-50 camels of varying sizes and colours. We tried to herd them away from the training track (all the time looking over our shoulders to see if we were getting sprung for this activity) but weren’t terribly successful as the camels seemed to be terribly intent on going over and saying g’day to the horses.
Kalahari got pretty excited and Kitt also joined in the fun but the girls scooted through a gap and headed out on the training tracks. Kalahari was a little unsettled for quite some time and the appearance of a further group of camels added to her anxiety. Meg decided to go across country to another track and Penny thought she’d turn around and head for home, taking the escort vehicle with her. We followed Meg and Kristie with me at the wheel. Having just recently watched all the episodes of the Dakar rally in South America I thought I’d give the sand hill bashing a bit of a whirl. Had lots of fun until I came over one that dropped off steeply on the side and hit the bottom with such a thump I thought we’d broken the chassis! I can see my days of rally driving may be numbered!
We found a great little hill and took photos with the lovely sand dunes as the backdrop. Some were silhouette type photos and others were group photos. We had a real ball doing this and then turned the horses for home and some water bottle practice. Kalahari is improving but I think she’s been talking with China Doll as she’s beginning to do the China wriggle away just as you pass up the bottle.
After washing down the horses and feeding them we headed back to the motel for a quick change and then back into town. Meg came along this time so we got to enjoy her driving capabilities. It wasn’t quite as bad as yesterday but the traffic was very heavy and a few broken down cars in our lane caused some grief.
