Cycling in Dubai

This post is particularly special as finally after much nagging and coercing, Johan is making his bloging debut on Dubai Days!  

He has written about a subject close to his and many others (not mine) hearts, cycling.

So, without further ado I shall step aside and make way for his tour de force of circumvolution. 

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Coming to Dubai I was concerned I may have to give up one of my major hobbies - road cycling. 

Every weekend back in the UK, I'd head out with a group of friends road biking around Windsor & Berkshire. 

It's a great place to road bike, out in the country side, passing small villages and being able to stop for some much needed respite at the pub. 

Sure, I had heard that there was an active community of road biking enthusiasts in Dubai, but couldn't imagine myself getting into it in the same way. 

I prepared myself for he fact that cycling as I knew it, would have to be left back in Europe. 

That said I wasn't going to give up completely, I'd have to give cycling in Dubai a try, as even bad cycling is better than no cycling at all. 

So, packing for a new life in Dubai included - 15 kilo of Cervelo bicycle and equipment.

For two months my bike was parked in a corner in our apartment, unused, gathering dust and getting sadder each day. So on my 60th day in Dubai I took it out for its first ride. 

It has to be said, taking the first ride along the leaves of the Palm Jumeriah is quite a good start to cycling in Dubai.

Encouraged by this positive first experience, I started to explore options for group road cycling in Dubai. 

As it turns out, cycling is quite a big sport in Dubai. There are two major cycling groups both run by volunteers and fellow cyclists. 

Dubai Roadsters gather at 6:00 a.m. on Friday by Limetree Cafe in Jumeirah. 

Another group, Cycle Safe Dubai, meet on Um Suqeim Road beyond Dubai Bypass road at 6:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For reasons of proximity I have done most my rides with the Cycle Safe Dubai  group.

Image:  Cycle Safe Dubai

Now I  have asked myself several times - what on earth I am doing, getting up at 5:00 a.m. on a weekend, I must be crazy, my wife certainly thinks so. 

But when you drive through Dubai at that hour in the morning, on traffic free, 8 lane roads, seeing the sunrise between the skyscrapers it makes a little more sense. 

Getting further out of the city as you approach the meeting point you're met by around 100 cyclists waiting to set off, which is a remarkable sight in itself. 

I have done about 8 rides with Cycle Safe Dubai since I started in February. 

Image: Cycle Safe Dubai

It's now July and the weather is becoming to hot to bear, it was 40 C °  when I came back last weekend. 

A 2 hour ride easily sucks up 3 litre's of water so you have to be quite creative where to store all your water bottles. In this heat you must keep hydrated. 

As one would imagine, cycling around Dubai does not involve any hills, it's flat asphalt roads surrounded by miles long sand-dunes. 

So, its all about speed. 

Plus, it has consistently been hard wind when I've been out, and with the wind on my back I've been averaging 55km/h along the last 6.5km stretch before reaching the parking lot.

With the help of GPS tracking app Strava you are able to compare your time along that stretch with fellow cyclists, which gives you that extra boost you need after 2 hours out in the sun. 

Strava app - Palm route

All in all though, cycling in Dubai can't be compared to riding up the Alps, the green UK countryside, or along vast rural cycling-paths in Sweden. 

However, it has it's own unique quality, cruising through the desert landscape, at times speeding past camels indifferently chewing dry branches, is quite a spectacular experience. 

So to anyone considering moving here;  
don't leave your bike behind!



 

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Shamed by cake!

Perfect Humming Bird Bakery Cup Cakes

It seems every woman in the world today is obsessed with baking, in particular cupcakes.

These days, you're considered an under achiever if you haven't founded your own cupcake company by the age of 30.

It's a modern day phenomenon, same as how every woman in the world seems to own a Longchamp holdall.

Back in April I decided to try my hand at baking and made Johan a Lemon drizzle cake for his birthday. It didn't turn out well, it was a grizzly frizzled cake as flat as a pan cake, you can read about that pitiful effort here.

Lemon drizzle fail! 

After this epic baking fail, I was determined not to let baking get the better of me. 

Adding insult to injury is that fact that my Mother is an amazing baker and taught me to bake as  a child. It seemed I was forever cutting pastry and making fairy cakes (the old name for cupcakes).

I tried to style it out with good presentation!

So how could I have forgotten all that my Mother had loving taught me???? 

Well I have forgotten plenty over the years - same as I've forgotten all about
'Representations of gender in 19th century expressionist literature' and other such stuff that was taking up valuable brain space.







I had also recently been gifted the Marian Keyes cook book Saved By Cake. 

I love Marian Keyes, she's a hoot and her cake book is pretty and poignant. She explains how learning to bake helped her manage her manic depression and stopped her from committing suicide.

From that description it doesn't sound like it's a right laugh but it is, she's even manages to make the recipes themselves funny.

Marian's cupcakes 

Marian explains how she had zero baking ability and taught herself from scratch, inspired by this I resolved to master baking.

So I chose a cupcake recipe from Saved By Cake named Consistently Good Cupcakes which Marian states are an easy, fail safe cupcake.

Mine exploded!!!

My evil cupcakes

I made evil cupcakes, pulsating and spewing lumps of cake mix like molten lava all over the oven. 

Getting better but still not great

However, being a tenacious sort I didn't get deterred and stayed up until 1am, until I got a worthy batch.

Johan went to bed leaving me slaving in the kitchen at midnight and thinking his wife was mental!

Through this process of trial and error I gained more confidence and ended up being quite experimental. 


I had an idea to make some sort of red, white and blue Queens Jubilee cupcakes.

Haha finally at 1am!!!

I took Marian's, Red Velvet Swirl cupcakes that have cream cheese frosting baked inside. Unfortunately, I hadn't any red food colouring so I improvised and added a few extra bits of my own.

The result was quite special - a light moist cupcake with Raspberry, Blueberry and vannilla cream cheese baked in side.

See what I did there?! Red, white and blue!

I even used real Madagascan vanilla, which is gorgeous but a massive pain in the bottom. Life's just to short to scrape minute vanilla seeds out of the pod.


Then came the frosting - A calo-rific - artery-clogging-extravaganza of my own invention!!
White chocolate, vanilla butter cream frosting.

 I experimented with both piped and flat spooned frosting styles. I think I actually preferred the flat as it saves the hassle of cleaning the piping bag and nozzle and gives a neat little result.

My conclusion is that baking is exhausting and requires lots of washing up.

Therefore, I shall not be setting up my own cupcake business, sorry to disappoint you all ;-)

OK they're a tad lopsided !

For the next 4 days we subsisted on a diet of only cupcakes as we had so many. 

One day I actually had one for breakfast, lunch, dinner and one for dessert. 

Great diet - a friend pointed out that the Blueberry and Raspberry actually count towards my 5-a-day. 

So with cupcakes in the bag, my next challenge is to create a Swedish Princess Cake - the lightest, most delicious and difficult to make cake in the world! 

I'll keep you posted on my progress. 



 

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Visit Petra - Jordan

It's in there somewhere Petra

Ever since I was a kid I have wanted to go to Petra. 

The first time I ever saw Petra

I became enthralled by Petra after seeing it in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1990! 

I remember thinking;
"I'm going to go there one day when I'm a proper grown up". 

It may have took some 22 years, but I finally made it to Petra and boy was it worth the wait. 

Petra is located in the south west of Jordan about 2.5 hours drive from Aqaba where we were staying. We got a taxi which is the commonest way to reach this ancient city, the round trip costing about $100. 

Map of Petra

Entrance to Petra cost 90 JD approx $125 per person which sounds like a lot of money. 

However, when you experience the glory of Petra for yourself you realise it's actually cheap! 

Petra is a true wonder of the world, so don't mind paying $125, I feel better knowing that some of the  fee goes towards preservation and protection of this historic site.  

I also didn't expect it to be so vast, it's a proper city and to walk and hike around the complete remains is a 12km round trip. 

You can even hire a horse and gallop around the way Harrison Ford did in the movie. 

One of the few occasions
I wore a suitable outfit

To savour our visit we opted to walk, spending the best part of a day, around 6 hours there. Admittedly we took our time,but you could do it in 3 hours if you go on horse, camel or donkey. 

But really why rush a wonder of the world?!!

Make sure you dress for action and stay hydrated. For hiking in the baking heat, you absolutely need proper walking shoes/trainers, sun cream and a hat or head scarf. 

Avoid flip flops, sandals as they will fall apart and short skirts or shorts are just not practical. Top tip is layering as you can go from hot to cold quite quickly.

To reach the main city first you have a 2km meander deep into the cannons, which is a beautiful and tranquil journey itself. 

However, nothing quite prepares you for the breath taking first glimpse of The infamous Treasury from behind a deep gash in the canon. 

Sometimes places you dream about visiting turn out to be disappointing, because they don't live up to your expectations. 

Petra is most certainly NOT one of those places. 

A much needed rest

Channelling Indiana Jones 

On the contrary if anything I wasn't prepared for just how majestic and breathtaking it actually is.

Carved out into the rock face are cave dwellings, which until very recently were still inhabited by Bedouin and you know what I can think of worse places to live. 

My student flat in Streatham for example was far less luxurious and certainly didn't have the amazing view!

This would be your living room window

Petra has a rich and fascinating history.

Established around the 6th centuray BC by the Nabataens  
with a population of around 20,000, made it quite a metropolis in those times.

It was an extremely important ancient city for trading in the region and is sited in all major ancient civilisations Egyptian, Greek, Roman. 

Fascinatingly, at the height of Petra's success the climate was different to today. 

More rain so the land would have been a little greener and more fertile, making agriculture possible and food stuffs available. 

Indeed, Petra must have been a thoroughly modern city in it's day, which is reflected by the lavishly decorated buildings.  

Some of the lesser sandstone structures are heavily eroded and sun damaged. 

A schlep up hill to the old temple/church ruins reveal amazingly preserved intricate mosaics, of animals, people, even some saucy mosaic nudity! 

The trek further up hill to The Monastery is not for the faint hearted, it's quite a climb but you're rewarded with spectacular panoramic views.  

          

One annoyance is all the sellers bugging you to buy jewellery and postcards. Totally understand people need to make living and exploit Petra's tourist revenues. 

However, it's the sheer volume of hassle you get, little kids, like toddlers chasing you. 

Don't make the mistake of thinking they're kids being friendly either, they're not they want your money. 

Petra's growth was also due to it's location. Being hidden deep in the canons mean't it was less vulnerable to attack.

Throughout the city ran miles of ingenious small canals that collected rain to supply the city with fresh water and sanitation.

It is alleged that Petra was abandoned due to a combination of massive flash floods and an earth quake in 363 that destroyed this vital water system.

What a wonderful day we had at Petra. I was totally captivated, that night I had magical dreams that whisked be back in time to the days that Petra was a great bustling, vibrant Rose City. 

In my dream, I sat in a cool spot under a silver barked tree. It was late afternoon and I watched the merchants trading goods and the fine lady's of the day drinking tea as the sun came down...... 

Petra is truly a place of dreams, if you only visit one place in the Middle East make it Petra.

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