Sumela Monastery, founded in 386 AD!
This fascinating monastery is nestled in a steep cliff at an altitude of about 4,000 feet. It is located in the Altındere National Park, and is surrounded by lush, green coastal mountains. Don’t miss it if you go to the Black Sea region of Turkey!
Jump!
During this season of travel we had a wonderful opportunity to visit friends who recently moved to Dubai. While looking for flights from Prague to India, we noted that many went through Dubai…in fact it was only $200 from Prague to Dubai! So we took the opportunity to visit our friends Mike and Catherine and their boys for a weekend. They live outside of the city, not far from the beach.
That’s the Persian Gulf!
I never thought I’d watch our son play with friends in the waters of the Persian Gulf!!
Also known as the Arabian Gulf in the UAE.
The next day our friends took us to see a camel race track!
Here are the race camels…
And here’s our gang:)
Catherine told us they once were invited to see a race. She had expected to watch the race from the stands; however, she was surprised to discover that the race was watched while in a car speeding alongside the camels, yelling encouragement to your favored camel (go, Orange!!)…amongst other speeding cars full of people cheering for their camels! Wish we could have experienced that!!
Apparently the camels are ridden by robot jockeys during the race…no, I’m not making it up!
Next, they took us to the desert. I mean, the real desert, with enormous sand dunes. We got there by four wheel driving…slipping, sliding, and bumping our way over the dunes to “their dune”. It felt just like driving across snow. There were no tracks, no parking lot, just follow the old race track and then veer off until we found this place…
The kids had a blast jumping off the dunes, running, climbing, and digging in the sand. It was so soft, like baby powder!!
The adults enjoyed chillin’ while the kids played…
Quite an amazing view!
We watched the sun get lower in the sky, but had to head home while it was still light.
Good-bye, desert!
Then there was a great sunset to top off a really great day as we headed home…
A big thank you to our friends for a wonderful couple of days!
global nomad family 