Latest article in The National: http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/mot ... yer-forest

Very Nice PR...have to do this one when I get back

We should plan a trip there once during the season - can try youre ki-shawar-shi = porta kitchen loool when we go

Still need to build it! LOL

Great article (as always) PR
Don't fancy camping with all those beasties though!

It's a great place, but serious on the beasties - just keep your boots on!

One winter in Al Hayer forest, all of a sudden, over perhaps 15 minutes, 20-30 camel spiders just ran straight past our chairs and feet and jumped into the fire!!!! We figured it was either the warmth or the light that drove them crazy - they were fast, super-fast, and just jumped right in, dying instantly....

I also came across very clear s-tracks of a sand viper up in the dunes above the forest, and it's the only place in UAE I've seen that.

Another time, on a lighter note! LOL an amazing giant owl just swooped from the tree right above us (we'd been there over an hour, sitting right under it!) - it was marvellous - didn't flap its wings, not even once: just kind of dropped out of the branches, opened its wings and gracefully curved almost down to the ground before just gliding up to the next tree - still without flapping like normal birds do, not even on the uphill part.

As for the scorpions, don't let them scare you - they're little guys, not at all interested in you (I've only seen a big dude once, in Liwa - and THAT guy was serious! I don't know if these smalle rones are babies or a different kind. Anyhow, I'd rate the danger as quite low -just scoop them into a plastic cup so all can have a good look, like so, and then release them far away from the campsite:

Very nice area
We used to cross it from Al-Hayer to wadi sumayni. I realy pleasure drivingas you drive through sand and to get to mountatin you hit the gravel.

The gravel are sharp as knife and if you got it wrong you either lose on e tire or both fronr & real.

Miss that area since they installed that Fence.