ABU DHABI // Plans for a group of 50 women to walk across the dunes from Al Ain to Abu Dhabi may have been hampered by sandstorms and rain, but their spirits were not defeated.
The annual Women's Heritage Walk, which has been growing in popularity since it began three years ago, was called off after the third day when a sandstorm blew through the group's desert camp on Sunday evening.
"We had two tents fly off and we've had a couple of people in the hospital," says Sarah Shaw, 33, an Emirati programme manager for Abu Dhabi Education Council.
"One lady had a panic attack. It was a good decision by the organising team to send us home. It's amazing how Mother Nature forces her presence, she just walks in and waits for no man. You have to deal with her beauty and her beast."
The women had hoped to walk the final 35 kilometres of the 125km route on Tuesday, but the bad weather showed no signs of letting up.
Determined to clock up the final distance, a group of 10 decided to complete the last stretch from the relative safety of Khalifa City A to Abu Dhabi's Corniche.
"We held on to the spirit of the Women's Heritage Walk in the city," says Marianne Auffret, from France, a 32-year-old food and beverage manager for Etihad. "It was important for us to be able to feel that we had walked 125km."
Although the trek did not go according to plan, it was far from being a disappointment for Ms Shaw, who said the time spent among the dunes helped to give her a strong connection to the memory of her grandmother, whose tribe lived a nomadic desert life.
"It was such a profound epiphany for me to realise how her generation must have really had such strong spirits to endure that distance through the desert, not knowing what dangers lay ahead. When a sandstorm struck, they wouldn't have had a solid building to escape to, just a tent — they were waiting and praying. For us, we had safety measures left, right and centre."
The walkers had set off in perfect sunshine last Thursday from Al Ain National Museum, following an ancient path that was traversed by Emiratis on camel and on foot twice a year until recent times.
But unlike desert walkers of the past, the women got to experience a taste of luxury on their first evening.
"We were greeted by Etihad attendants with fresh wet towels, in the same manner we're greeted onto the plane," says the walk's founder, Jody Ballard. "They wanted to treat us to first-class service in the desert. I told the women not to get used to this, but each lunch and dinner was excellent."
Friendships quickly formed between the walkers, who were of 20 different nationalities, with singing a great source of collective positivity.
"A lady would start singing and others would start singing with her or repeating after her," said Ms Shaw. "We were all singing our favourite Disney songs like Hakuna Matata, Under the Sea and A Whole New World. These made us laugh every time and that laughter allowed us to press on in spite of any hardships."
American Ms Ballard said the line of walkers would often stretch out across the dunes, sometimes for as much as a kilometre.
"The chatter was deafening as the women got to know each other. Each walker kept a close eye on their buddy, but everyone quickly stepped up to help when needed."
Nadine Hensley, a 47 year-old South African duty operations supervisor for Etihad, said the walk proved to be a very different experience to the mountain hiking she'd undertaken as a young woman.
"It was something so unique, which opened up something inside me that I didn't know existed. When you're younger, you do things for yourself and then you have children and you do everything for them. Now my sons are now 23 and 18, and it's time for me again.
"After the first day I thought 'how am I going to do all this walking?' I knew I had to push through and it all came together. I've learnt — and I think this will always stay with me — that if your mind stays strong, your body will be strong, too."
Ms Shaw found the experience of walking for 10 hours a day before having to unpack her belongings and tent humbling.
"At home I'd be coming back to a perfectly made bed, food on my plate, I don't need to work for it," she said. "As a generation we've become so jaded — we've not actually gone through the grit of fending for ourselves. This journey made me realise what's important in life and what's not."
newsdesk@thenational.ae
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Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
About RuPay
A homegrown card payment scheme launched by the National Payments Corporation of India and backed by the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank
RuPay process payments between banks and merchants for purchases made with credit or debit cards
It has grown rapidly in India and competes with global payment network firms like MasterCard and Visa.
In India, it can be used at ATMs, for online payments and variations of the card can be used to pay for bus, metro charges, road toll payments
The name blends two words rupee and payment
Some advantages of the network include lower processing fees and transaction costs
Feeding the thousands for iftar
Six industrial scale vats of 500litres each are used to cook the kanji or broth
Each vat contains kanji or porridge to feed 1,000 people
The rice porridge is poured into a 500ml plastic box
350 plastic tubs are placed in one container trolley
Each aluminium container trolley weighing 300kg is unloaded by a small crane fitted on a truck
MATCH INFO
Championship play-offs, second legs:
Aston Villa 0
Middlesbrough 0
(Aston Villa advance 1-0 on aggregate)
Fulham 2
Sessegnon (47'), Odoi (66')
Derby County 0
(Fulham advance 2-1 on aggregate)
Final
Saturday, May 26, Wembley. Kick off 8pm (UAE)
Moving%20Out%202
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Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
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The specs
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Transmission: eight-speed automatic
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Torque: 730Nm
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Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
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Founded: 2017
Based: UAE
Sector: Travel & tourism
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Funding: Privately funded
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Started: Back to Games (2015); Boardgame Space (Mark Azzam became co-founder in 2017)
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