My husband and I were supposed to drive to Umm al-Quwain with some friends last Friday. Umm al-Quwain is one of the seven emirates of UAE and lies 70 kms to the North-East of Dubai.
We left at 1:30 in the afternoon on a relatively clear day so when the sandstorm hit us we were unprepared and taken by surprise. Just five minutes into the drive we could hear thewinds blow and a few minutes later there was sand everywhere. Our car started vibrating and visibility dropped to zero. Radio stations interrupted regular transmission to give frequent traffic updates. We could see toppled over garbage bins in the middle of the road, fallen barricades and uprooted trees. The papers the next day said that the sandstorm left a trail of damage in it’s wake.
Since it was a weekend there was not much traffic on the roads and we were able to continue driving with hazard lights on. The photographs are those taken from my Nokia mobile phone, while in the car.
Visiblity improved when we entered Sharjah and it was raining by now. At Umm al-Quwain where it had rained already I spotted a rainbow – very faint and low. It was the first rainbow I’ve seen in the UAE and unfortunately it was too faint to catch it on my mobile phone.
The sandstorm passed as quickly as it came and the weather was perfect on our drive back, but the tell-tale signs of the sandstorm could be seen. The topic of discussion on Sunday in office was where we were at the time of the sandstorm. I realized that I was luckier than some of my colleagues who had decided to go on a boat trip to Mussandam, Oman for the weekend. At the time of the sandstorm on Friday they were ready with their life-jackets on, saying their prayers because their boat was poised to capsize into the chilly waters of the Persian Gulf. Luckily for them no such thing happened and they came back saying that it was the best and the worst weekend of their life.
I got some good pictures on my phone. My favourite is this one of the beach at Umm al-Quwain -
