Al Jimi Oasis

My natural history group has different outtings every weekend so last weekend I went on a tour of one of the seven big oasis in the region.  Amer, our guide/host is a member of the group who took so many of these tours that he became an expert.  We were also lucky enough to have a local person in our group who worked for the municipality that takes care of the oasis so we got lots of inside knowlege on the place. 

It was like walking in a wild palm tree park with odd wells and irrigation canals.  Tall grasses are grown and harvested for animal feed.  There are tons of birds flitting around including green parots, swifts, bee eaters and swallows.  Interestingly, a lot of the birds were imported to increase the beauty of the country and, I'm assuming, polinate the flora.  We even saw a snake called a Wadi Racer. 

Here we are traipsing through the grass

a lot of this walled walkway was demolished in the wind storm last week and
we had to climb over downed trees

Historically, Al Jimi Oasis was a natural source of water like all oasis and it was used by the local community as a farming area.  They grew date palms, fruits and vegetables.  There was also a big fort for protection against any invading tribes who might try to steal the water, food or women.  

During the 1960's the discovery of oil created a movement out of the oasis and into the coastal towns so the agricultural communities died off.   To maintain the oasis nowadays, desalinated water is piped in from the coast and they almost exclusively grow date palms.  A palm tree needs 50 gallons of water every day and there are over a million in the area so that's a lot of water.  



they put mesh bags around the dates before they get ripe so that they don't fall on the ground

 Of course, the people who work in the oasis are from India or Pakistan and it's hard work.  They shimmy up these palms to bag and harvest the dates as well as cut the leaves every year to maintain the health of the tree.  Date palms were the most important possession that a person could have in the desert because you used the dates for food, feeding camels, making arabic coffee and the leaves for shelter and weaving.   Because of this, the late Sheikh made sure that every citizen had at least one date palm.  There are sections of the city where anyone can go and plant their palm and there are areas of palms that are donated to the poor.

There is still a fort there and it's open to the public but the local workers have decided to live in it illegally so they locked it up and we couldn't get inside.  I'll try again another time because it looked pretty interesting from the outside.

the fort at twight

It was hot during the walk but it was my first look at the UAE that didn't include a shopping mall so I had fun.  Afterwards, my friend/neighbor Patreshia and I went to La Brioche Cafe and had a good dinner surrounded by tables of white robed Arabic men.  The delicious corn-fed chicken in a muchroom sauce, whipped potatoes and a very large mint lemonade that I ordered was less than $15 which impressed me.  There was also a good selection of pastries that I'm going back for next time :)