At last the weather has cooled enough for us to contemplate camping again. In Abu Dhabi the daily high is around 33ºC while the forecast for our favourite Jebel Misht camp site is showing mid 20’s. So time to get the tent back on the roof of the car.

After an early departure from work and a four and a half hour drive we were sitting around a camp fire under the light of a full moon. We were impressed to see that the pile of fire wood that we had left behind in March was still neatly stacked next to the fire pit!

The PhotoPills app on Nigel’s phone allows him to calculate exactly where the moon will rise. He planned a spectacular shot of the moon rising behind a lone tree on top of a hill. Unfortunately, the moon was not cooperating (or the app needs to be calibrated) and decided to rise a little to the left. Next time he will be ready for it.

As usual Nigel went looking for sunrise photos while Sue focused (pun intended) on midday dragonfly close-ups.

Our usually tranquil site was a little busier this time.

On Friday night a car parked nearby and the driver proceeded to run a huge circular route up and down the hills around us to round an errant nanny goat and a couple of kids.

The next morning a herd of about 100 goats walked along the wadi next to us accompanied by two goatherds. We didn’t work out where they had come from or where the disappeared to.

Later in the day a local family turned up at ‘our’ swimming hole – the first time we have seen anybody else there.

Finally, as we were leaving the wadi we were blocked by burning grass. We were able to climb out of the wadi and pass by easily enough but it was throwing out an impressive amount of heat. We think that they were burning of dead grass so that there would be new growth for the goats to eat. But that is pure speculation.

Despite all the interruptions, two nights away still felt like a holiday. Maybe we will come back next weekend and hope that it is a bit quieter.