2005/07/24

Trip up Jabel Hafeet

On Friday, I made a trip most of the way up Jabel Hafeet, which is just south of Al Ain. At 1,340 meters (about 4,422 feet), it is the tallest mountain in the Arabian Penninsula. There is are 13 km road going up to the top, and I made it most of the way up (about 10 km) before the car's engine started to overheat. The road is quite steep in places (if it is 13 km long, and the mountain is 1.3 km high, then I think that makes it an average grade of 10%).


These are a couple of views of Hafeet from the south of Al Ain:




The road up the mountain. Going up it is two lanes, coming down it is only one (probably to control the speeders).


This is the view from the place I stopped. You can see how twisty the road is.


And the sun setting from the mountain top.


Except for a few speeders, who insisted on passing me where there was cleary no room, that nearly caused several serious accidents on the way down, it was a very pleasant trip.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

heya! got ur blog address from AmitL.
it might strange a bit strange since we do not know each other well, but the thing is that some of us bloggers here in UAE are planning a meet this friday, 29th july 2005 in Dubai. And we would like to meet more bloggers from the country. It would b really great if you could also join us!!
mail me on pixel8@rediffmail.com

Bu3askoor said...

great pictures brain, i remember being there when i was a kid on a school trip :) But after seeing the pictures, i am planning for a return.

Brn said...

Thanks bu3askoor! I would definately like to try going up again myself, maybe when the weather cools off.

Anonymous said...

i have jus read this post .. and im sorry about your car lol

you HAAAVVE to reach the top of the mountain .. the city looks amazing and there's mercure resort where swimming in the pool would be fun ! not at 2pm thu u'll be grilled >_<