Day 8

The trip to Hatta got off to a rather slow start. We began with a two-hour drive to the border of the U.A.E with the Sultanate of Oman. We were met with a strategic passport check accompanied by guns. After our first ‘check’ we ventured into the desert; this began posing problems with the yellow buses we had become accustomed with over the past week. Mr Clark’s famous “oh, only about another twenty minutes” was beginning to wear thin and we relied on some border-line witty comments to edge our way over what seemed rocky obstacle course. 

As we began giving up hope of ever reaching this ‘Hatta Pools’ almost out of nowhere, appeared a glimmering pool - like some sort of mirage! Everyone edged off the bus with baited breath, as we then distributed down the mountainside. As we drew nearer the temperature was rising fast and the sun cream was continuously plastered on followed by the additional “oh I’m burning right there! Can you see?”. To our delight the picturesque pool was ice cold. The brave plunging in first, followed by stragglers after they had completed routine strategic sun cream checks. The cliffs surrounding the water posed to be too much of a temptation as a mere few threw themselves off the edge to applause from fellow bathers.

Matron produced an excellent barbeque lunch, which we shared with some friendly flies! This was short lived, as we were all back into swimming with the fish immediately! Sam and I began with some small adventures picking bracelets and shells off the bottom. This was then followed by an intrepid adventure through cavernous fissure in the rock. We then continued climbing through small gaps, over waterfalls until we reached the pool’s source. The sight was one of beauty, not a cloud in the sky, just the journey which loomed for us on the way back!

Patrick Tuffy 4P