Every Grain of Sand...

...ended up in every nook and cranny of every single thing we took to the beach.

Turns out sand isn't really my thing - or the Don's - though the kids didn't seem to mind living, swimming, eating and sleeping in it!

It was the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula that we were visiting, and the emirate of Fujairah, which lies between the Omani territories of Musandam and Muscat.  Unlike its six desert sisters, Fujairah is almost entirely mountainous, and unsurprinsgly, felt very similar to both the Muscat and Musandam road trips we've taken in the last year.

Thought to have been built in 1640, the mud-brick Fujairah Fort sits on a hill above the city, surrounded by date orchards and the remains of other buildings.  Although the British damaged the fort in the early 1900s, it has now been restored, though it being Eid it was also closed.

Looks like rain.  And had we been anywhere other than here...

A half hour's drive north of Fujairah lies Al Aqah public beach.  We'd planned to camp overnight so the following morning we could snorkel out around Snoopy Island (yes, named after the cartoon dog it resembles).  But though the sea was a better temperature, it was also very, very powerful.  Though the photos don't do it justice, the waves were so strong that we did no more than play in the surf.  And even then we couldn't help but sometimes be anxious about the kids hurtling towards the shore before being dragged back down the beach, I'm sure mostly because of the recent events in our home town.

So we just stayed on the beach and played.  And got very sandy.  And played.  And made camp.  And lit a fire.  And played some more.  And got even sandier.  And slept.  Off and on.  While lying in sand.  And woke up, covered in sand. And played a bit more.  And paddled.  And played.  And had breakfast.  And believe it or not, got even sandier.

Waiting for the hodogs...

...and marshmallows!

Some moon shadow game...

Possible because of the clouds it was definitely cooler and more pleasant than we imagined.  I mean it was still hot, sticky and hard (sand is not comfortable to sleep on), and changing wind directions in the middle of the night meant Toots was practically mummified by the tent till we could work out how to create some guy ropes, but all in all, it was bearable.

Even enjoyable for some!

My hair, not so much.

Guy rope and drying line in one. Chair and peg in one.
Multi-tasking is the name of the game.

And then before it got too hot it was time to dig the car out of the sand it got stuck in, pack up our sandy stuff, and head home to wash everything off in the pool.  First though a stop at Al Bidyah mosque, the oldest in the UAE.

Al Bidiyah Mosque is built of stone and mudbricks and is coated in many layers of whitewashed plasters.  Architecturally, Al Bidiyah Mosque is somewhat unique in the Emirates.  Its distinctive structure, and especially its roof, consisting of four pointed domes and supported by an internal pillar is unusual for religious architecture in the region.  According to the radio carbon analysis the date of this mosque may be as early as 1446AD.

We don't look too bedraggled, do we?