UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Clockwise from left: Hussain Darwish with his Harris’s hawk, Logan; thorny bush growing from the rocks on Jebel Jais, the highest point of the UAE, in the Hajar Mountains; outdoor adventure guide Fadi Hachicho serves freshly brewed tea at his Camp 1770 Previous pages, from left: Arabian oryx in the Al Wadi Nature Reserve; sand dunes in the Al Wadi Desert
The mountains “You froze time!” Fadi Hachicho is talking to a Harris’s hawk, but the
bird has its head in the clouds. Caught in an updraft, it’s hovering on the wind high above us, still in the air, the sun playing on its russet feathers. When it flies on, it’s only to luxuriate in the thermals some more, circling in large, languid rings, flapping its wings only occasionally. Which makes it all the more surprising when it suddenly pivots, head to the scree below, and spirals twice before diving in one clean swoop. Fadi bursts into a laugh, high-pitched and unrestrained. “Now you’re just showing off.” Native to Mexico, Harris’s hawks are not the raptors you’d expect to
see hunting in Ras Al Khaimah, the northernmost of the United Arab Emirates’ seven territories. Falcons are more commonly associated with the wider region; Bedouin trained these birds to source food as a means of survival in the Arabian desert, a millennia-old practice that, in its original form, has been inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. “I used to falcon before adopting Logan,” says Hussain Darwish of the bird that’s following our group of three on the high and lonely path, hop-flying from bush to boulder. He’s from Oman, one of the countries where traditional falconry originated. “But falcons will hunt and either return to camp or wait with the prey. Logan is trained to hike with me — with us.” I’m spending three days exploring the adventurous side of this little-
known emirate, and I’ve started on a high: guide Fadi and his friend Hussain are taking me on an hour-long trek up Jebel Jais, the highest point in the UAE at 6,345ft (1,934m). It’s part of the Hajar Mountains, a rocky, barren range more often associated with neighbouring Oman. It spills into the emirates at its western end, creating opportunities for multi-stop ziplining, hike-and-fly paragliding and summit-bagging — the list goes on. “No other place in the country has all this in one spot,” says Fadi. Originally from Beirut, he moved from Dubai to Ras Al Khaimah to
take advantage of its larger-than-life nature. We started our walk from Camp 1770, which he now runs as part of his tour company, Adventurati Outdoor. Set at 5,807ft in the Jebel Jais mountains, it’s the highest campsite in the UAE, and on the trail leading out from it, views of the Hajars unfurl in every direction. They first formed 70 million years ago when tectonic plates collided, thrusting the seabed up in rippling crests reminiscent of crashing waves. “Hajar means ‘rock’,” says Fadi. “These are our Rocky Mountains, our Grand Canyon.” For all its potential, Ras Al Khaimah is new to the adventure scene.
Five years ago, there were fewer than 10 miles of official hiking trails in the Jebel Jais area. When Highlander — a series of long-distance trekking events that’s been held in over 20 countries since 2017 — first took place here three years ago, the network had to be especially
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