Wouter Kingma
The team arrived to edge of Liwa the day before National day and were hosted at the farm of Raschid Al Mansoori. On the 1st of December, the Al Manaseer tribe (Al Mansoori) the biggest tribe in the western region held a national day celebration event in Mizeirah City (Liwa), to which the team were invited and they rode in to the celebrations.
The event was attended by the heads of the tribe and officials from the Western Region Development Council, Western Region Municipality and the Ruler’s Representative Court in the Western Region. The team were invited to celebrate National Day the dignatories and guests and recieved traditionals Arabic hospitality, took part in national dance and listeded to poetry.
On the 2nd December, UAE National Day a celebration was held at the Mizeirah Fort for the explorers.
Under the Patronage of the and Ruler Representative Court in the Western Region and Western Region Development Council, Saed, Gafan and Adrian weere warmly welcomed to the historical “Mizeirah Fort” in Liwa to meet officials from the region. A traditional arabic dinner was served and the officials spoke with the tem about the expedition progress and wished them luck going ahead on their journey to Al Ain.
During the eveninig the team prayed “maghrib” with and were treated to traditional Arabic tea.
Saeed Al Mesafry said “I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our leaders and our people for the UAE 40th National Day, we are proud as Emiratis to be part of this expedition and we are proud to make it all this way to Liwa, it’s great to be in the western region, we have learned a lot by crossing the empty quarter we learned how to be more patient, how simple our grandfathers use to live and the magic and the purity of the desert, I think that the company of the camels for 33 days was great and we learned more about the beautiful customs and traditions of our people and tribes in both Oman and the UAE”
Ghafan Al Jabry added “I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our leaders and our people for the UAE 40th National Day, I am very happy to celebrate this very special occasion with my people here at the western region, our journey is going well and we are feeling tired but full of hope to complete this expedition to offer our beloved country a card of thanks and gratitude, the last 2 days were amazing, we have felt the spirit of the desert talking to us again”
The team are now on their way to Al Ain – 280 km across the desert, the aim to reach Jebel Hafeet on 8th December.
