Hijra, the Islamic New Year, meant a long weekend and our first camping trip this ‘winter’.

Our Croatian sailing buddies, Paul and Wendy, came with us along with another work colleague, Fataya, who brought her niece Asma and maid, Lolé. The three had never camped before so Fataya bought all the gear the night before and hired a 4wd to put it all in.

First stop was ‘our’ swimming hole and camp site at Madba. For the first time ever there were other campers there and and we were forced to look for an alternative camping area. We ended up at a much better site than we had used previously, on the other side of the plateau and well away from the edge of the wadi.

The next day saw us exploring new territory – a little oasis village called Khatwa with lush gardens fed by falaj and then more off-road travels to another swimming hole.