November 2006: Updates
Added extra route information to Jebel Qihwi and Jebel Rawdah pages.

November 23-24 2006: Continued exploring the Northern end of the Jebel Sumayni area, trying to join up routes on the east to ones on the west. We found some spectacular wadis.

November 2006. We returned to Nepal and explored the upper Langtang valley as far as the Morimoto Base Camp. We also had time to travel up the Bhote Kosi towards the border with Tibet. We had a fair bit of snow in upper Langtang which made it all the more wonderful. The whole trek was just excellent. We really enjoyed the valley above Kyanjing Gompa and the Tibetan culture. The tourist industry in Nepal seems to be returning to normal. There were many more tourists around, and Kathmandu was really rocking on both Saturdays nights that we had there; just like the old days.

Added the story of our journey to Nepal during the April 2006 political conflict. Nepal in Turmoil.

Added a link to the Kates Hill Press, a small publishing company of a friend who worked with me here, and shared in so many of our good times in the early days in the UAE. Greg Stokes has published some of his work, including some short stories about living in the Gulf. Links Page. Take a look, especially if you lived here in the early eighties.

Bill Dibb sailed the UAE coastline in a Drascombe Lugger. When we chatted a couple of years back, around a camp fire at the foot of Jebel Harim, he was still investigating launching points points for his boat. When we met recently on another camping trip, he told me that he'd completed the project, and I'm pleased to say that he agreed to allow me to include his story on chirri2000.com.
Although Bill is pretty modest about his achievement, I can tell you that what he's done is really something special. Read all about it here - UAE Coastline in a Lugger.

Added the start of a links page - Links

Despite the hot weather we've managed three great weekends away in recent months. There was an unforgettable few days spent hiking on Jebel Akhdar in Oman, and then two trips with the Emirates Natural History Group; one to Khasab, and the second to Aqabat Oso. Once again we managed to avoid the summer heat by camping high in the mountains. We hope to get away to Italy in September to have a go at the 'via ferratas' in the Dolomites. Should be fun!
27th July 2004

Added page on climbing Jabal Ghawil near Al-Ain.
Had a great winter, doing many trips all over the UAE and several exciting visits to Oman. Recently returned from my medical check-ups, which were all fine. Now it's getting warmer, I hope to find time to add some more pages to Chirri2000.
4th June 2004

Made some changes to Khabb and Sumayni pages. The changes to the Sumayni page were prompted by yesterday's climb up Sumayni, when we finally realised that the 'tomb' near the summit is in fact an animal trap (wolf or fox, probably fox judging by the size).
1st November 2003

Added description of how to explore the amazing hills above Wadi Khabb Shamsi.
28th October 2003

Just got back from a trip to the UK. It was a mixture of medical check-ups and pleasure. The medical checks were fine, and we were soon able to concentrate on enjoying my brother's 50th birthday party, and then managed to get out and about in Harlow, Warrington, Norfolk and Cambridge.

On our return to the UAE we were keen to take advantage of the cooler weather, and get away for an overnight camp. We chose Jebel Qatar because it wasn't too far away, and we still had plenty there that we wanted to explore.

The overnight camp was thankfully quite bearable due to a welcome breeze, and despite the 44°C daytime temperature we managed to do two good walks on the Jebel. I've added a footnote to the Jebel Qatar page with updated information about what we found.

More recently, I've revisited Jebel Rawda where we did a grand tour lasting five hours! There was a little rain on the mountain on Thursday night (23 Oct. 2003) and some more on Friday afternoon, so botanists take note!! Hiking conditions are still a bit hot and sticky, but the occasional clouds gave welcome relief from the sun. Despite the heat, we saw quite a few people out and about, some picnicking but also a few walking in the hills.

News about Wadi Bih
I've heard news that the UAE check-post was closed to expatriates (Oct. 2003), so be warned if you are planning to do the Wadi Bih through to Dibba trip or plan to climb Jebel Qihwi. Apparently you can enter the route via Dibba but just aren't allowed to pass through the checkpoint from either direction. Please note that although my sources are reliable I haven't checked this personally, and things could revert to the way they were. If you you hear any news on this please email me.
25th October 2003

Spruced up Discovery Page and annotated images in galleries. Added ALT-Text to various images for accessibility. I'm off to London for medical checks next week, then it's back for some more adventure in cooler weather.
28 August 2003

Cosmetic changes to the interface.
10th August 2003

Just added the story of the great summer trips we've been doing. Summer Madness!
July 2003

I had a trip to UK in March for my regular medical checks, and that went very well, (all clear!!). The trip was overshadowed by the war in Iraq. Everyone living in the region is affected in some way or another by the war. Fortunately, the bombing and fighting has quietened down now, and the authorities can get down to helping the Iraqis get their lives back together.

Since we've been back, we've had a weekend trip to the desert with the Emirates Natural History group. The purpose of the trip was to investigate the existence (or otherwise) of desert wild cats in the area. We didn't find any but the experience was interesting and the desert driving was very exciting.

The weather has started to warm up noticeably, and we've been treated to some amazing storms in the last few weeks. We had a lot of rain over the whole of the UAE along with wild windy conditions, plus dust and thunder storms. Trees were blown over, flags were ripped to shreds, my newly laid out home office had rain coming through the windows, soaking the floor, and my precious gadgets on the windowsill. Most excitingly, the wadis started to flow with water. This was very welcome, because many of the natural habitats have been in a sorry state due to the scarcity of rainfall over the last few years. I'm not sure that the recent storms will be enough to redress the balance, you only have to witness the rate at which the puddles in town evaporated to realise how much rain is needed to make a real difference. Having said that, many of the mountain recharge dams had lakes of water behind them and recent trips into the mountains and desert showed plenty of plant growth.

I've recently had a chance to renew my interest in archaeology with a couple of trips to the various sites around Ras Al Khaimah and also on the East-Coast. The latter trip included an interesting introduction to petroglyphs (rock art). I've seen these before but never realised how widespread they were, so I'll be on the look out for them on future visits to the mountains. Alas, that will have to wait until the end of the summer, when the weather cools down again. Hopefully I'll have some time to knock up a few more pages during the summer months.

Roy Richards - May 2003

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