Kayaking in the Mangroves

I don't know if there are Womangroves too, but we went in the Mangroves. I think I've told you about kayaking before, but I have some pictures to share from our trip and some of you might want to see pictures of people enjoying warm weather.

Kathleen, me and Fiona after our adventure. Ahhh, the ubiquitous Boston Marathon shirt. Interestingly enough when I wear something from Boston I normally get people that will ask me if I'm from there, why I'm here etc.... So it's a good conversation starter.

On this day there was a young woman there from Newton who works in Abu Dhabi teaching autistic children. She's also a runner and works out with the local running club. There was a woman parked beside us in the lot who commented that she had done Boston a couple of times back in the late 80's when she was a student at BU.

The beauty of kayaking here is you get completely away from the fast-paced big city environment even though you can see the buildings while you're out on the water. The mangroves are a fragile eco-system that is slowly disappearing because of development.

The company that provides the experience in the Mangroves does eco-tours, clean-ups tours, 2hr paddles, overnight trips and anything else you can think of. It really is a treat to be out on the water with them. We've sent student groups out to help clean-up the area and they've loved it because it gets them out of the downtown area.

Mark and Annie Freeman are the owners of Noukhada Adventures, but any non-Emirate that wants to run or own a business in the U.A.E. must have an Emirate as a 50/50 partner and most of the Emirate partners are silent ones. They take their share of the profit, but end up doing very little work for it, but that's just the cost of doing business here.

Kathleen and Fiona on the water checking out the Mangrove trees.

QOB: "Strangers are friends that you have yet to meet." Robert Lieberman, film director.