What a superb day, after a number of delays we set out and hit the trail heading towards Jebel Hafit (or Jebel Hafeet depending on the sign board), the location for the first geocaching event in the gulf region. Jebel Hafit is an amazing feat of engineering, and the summit is officially the highest point in the United Arab Emirates (standing at some 1100 meters above sea level). Now, that doesn't seem like much, but considering that nearly the entire country is just a few meters above sea level and fairly flat, it is impressive. This is all the more apparent when you park in the parking lot on the summit and look out, where you can see for miles, and everything around the summit is as flat as a pancake.
It's about a two hour drive if you follow the posted speed limits, and about 180 km from home. We made really good time, liberally interpreting the speed limits, and decided to go for a cache near our final destination in Al Ain (the town close to Jebel Hafit). Have a Jahli good time! was one of the new caches posted in recent days, and still hadn't been found yet, so we figured we would see if we could get the FTF. Finding the park in which the cache is hidden was easy enough, and then walking to the actual cache and finding it was pretty straight forward. Trying to fish the logbook out of the nano cache was another story. After a quarter of a hour trying to get the darn thing out, we were finally able to sign the logbook. And yes indeed, we were the first to find!
But then things took a turn for the more frustrating. As we turned around to go and hide the cache again, we discovered two indigenous gentlemen had come and sat on the grass, facing the cache hiding spot, not more than a few meters away. So now how do we hide the cache again? My other half thought if she walked to the other side of where they were sitting, she might be able to distract them. One then watched her, while the other watched me... sigh! After about 20 minutes, realising that time was running out, we figured the only was to go was to pretend to drop something while walking past the cache location, and while retrieving it, quickly put the nano back. And so it was done!
Having wasted a great deal of time on this one cache we were now running a little late, and no longer had time to hide a cache of our own as intended! We had to race up the mountain, to get to the summit first, as I was the one who had organised the event in the first place, and it would just be wrong for the host to be late!
We timed it well, and with tires screeching around the corners up the mountain we managed to get there before anyone else.... but only just. Not 5 minutes later, and the first of the UAE Cachers arrived (Liveonce). After about another 10 minutes, everyone started to arrive one after the other.
It was just great to meet all the people you read about caching in the community. We also managed to get a really great group photo, thanks to Desert Trekker and his seemingly unlimited supply of gadgets! Camel Master and Camel Mistress, Desert Dueler and Desert Rose, Jamesdxb and Tara, US-A-Rabia, Liveonce, The CADs and of course Desert Trekker and his better half!
We spent about two and a half hours just talking about things... setting up for the Rat Race (more on that later) and just getting to know each other better. It was wonderful finally putting a face with all those cryptic names, and to discover that our caching community is really full of wonderful people.
However, as I was just having such a great time, I neglected to notice how I was getting a nice deep sun tan... err... burn! Holy moly, I am still red like a lobster! Arms, feet, neck and face took the brunt of the punishment! No matter, it was a small price to pay and the experience was totally worth it! Someone mentioned that this event was once of the most rewarding cache "finds" to date, and I must agree!
Just before 3pm we all went our separate ways, and all climbed in our cars to go do some geocaching in the area. As we were the last to leave, on the drive down the mountain we kept running into each other going for the obvious caches along the route! That was quite funny...
We managed to get a couple of caches in, Jebel Hafit (finally found this one, thanks to Desert Dueler and updated coords, and it is the oldest cache in the UAE!) and Jamesdxb's Work your way up!. The latter gave us a little trouble, until we figured we would test the Dubai Marina theory (my own cache), and were pleasantly surprised to find it hidden in a similar fashion.
After these two, there were still a whole bunch to go for... but I was starting to not feel so good. Probably as a result to not having eaten a thing the whole day, and the generous dose of UV/A and UV/B (aka sun). So even though we got near to a cache, we decided to just press on home instead, and plan a day to come back and maybe meet up with US-A-Rabia (since he lives in the middle of nowhere!).
All in all a great day, meeting great people. Next weekend my other half has to work, and I might have a day to spend hiding caches! Who knows... be sure to check back soon!
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