Sunrise on Jebel Hafeet

My boss is one of the nicest men that you will ever meet. So it wasn't surprising that he insisted that as a Christian I take yesterday (Christmas) off. With the family in the US, I actually wouldn't have minded working and being around people, but I also didn't want to insult him, so that settled it. So I did something that I've been thinking about doing for a while but haven't gotten around to: watching the sunrise from atop Jebel Hafeet. So I set the alarm for 5:00 am and dashed up to the top.

As I expected, I had the place to myself, both because of the time of day and the time of year. Last winter when I mentioned that we had all gone up Hafeet the day before, my co-workers were horrified because of how "cold" it is this time of year. Of course, cold is relative, but still, it was far from freezing, especially when out of the wind:

So I got to enjoy the spectacular views in complete peace



and watch as dawn broke

 and night gradually brightened into day.

A first for me was the very thick fog that was near the top of the mountain. At one point visibility was down to just a few feet. It made the drive up and down, already selected as the "greatest driving road in the world" even more exciting. (Of course being in a mini-van takes away a large amount of the excitement.) All in all, it was the greatest Christmas morning spent without my family.