20231224 AAAA Trip - Cruise day #6, Sir Bani Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 99/105 - Cruise day #6 - Sir Bani Yas Island, UAE

The UAE (United Arab Emirates) is comprised of seven individual emirates, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah. Today, we are in the emirate of Abu Dhabi on the island known as Sir Bani Yas.  Sir Bani Yas Island is the largest island off the coast of Abu Dhabi and was the former private island of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder of the UAE. It now holds a huge nature reserve, home to thousands of large free-roaming animals and several million trees and plants. Our Christmas Eve day will be spent here.

There is a long cruise ship dock here with a beach available right after walking to the island

This beach park of the island was created - the main portion of the island is a natural island

We boarded our trucks and headed into the preserve.

Hydrax

There were lots of gazelles

Indian antelope

Feeding time

Peacocks were everywhere

They had several giraffes

Two giraffes hiding in the trees

Oryx

Chital

Ostrich

Oryx

Barbary sheep

All these animals are free to roam. They also keep several cheetahs in a separate area. They are used to thin the gazelle population when necessary.

There are several mineral-rich deposits here that are being kept natural

They have a 10-turbine wind farm and a solar farm to supply power to the three resorts here

One of the resorts

A Sheikh's retreat atop the highest point of the island

Ghaf Hill, planted on top with seven ghaf trees - the national tree of the UAE - each tree represents one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE

A closer look at Ghaf Hill

More area under development for a new palace

The water called

It was after 12 p.m. so margaritas seemed in order

We headed back to the ship, grabbed lunch, and then Arlona took a little nap this afternoon.

This afternoon's trivia found us back on top of the game with our partners, scoring those three Big O points.  Our misses:

• What country is divided by the Cook Strait?
• We didn't know - it is New Zealand
• What record-setting pilot discovered the jet stream in the plane, Winnie Mae?
• We guessed Howard Hughes - it was Wiley Post
• What was the first frozen food sold by Clarence Birdseye?
• We guessed peas - it was fish

We finished with enough time to catch the sunset - what little sunset there was tonight.

The moon was out too - I grabbed this quick cellphone snap

Dinner tonight was at Red Ginger - the Asian fusion restaurant on Riviera.

We were given an edamame starter

I had the tempura vegetables appetizer - yummy

Arlona had potatoes wrapped noodles and shrimp - excellent

Arlona had the lobster Pad Thai and udon noodles

I had the twice-cooked crispy chicken

A side of fried rice and udon noodles rounded it out

Dinner was terrific as was the service. We didn't have room left for dessert so we called it a great meal.

This evening's trivia was a little rougher and we placed third with our team.  There was a theme we had to figure out. Every answer started with a "P". Our failures:

• What tailor stole a glance at Lady Godiva as she rode naked through the streets?
• We couldn't come up with anything - it was Peeping Tom - duh
• Aristotle called this the master science
• We guessed physics - it was politics
• In the Beatles song, what is the nurse selling?
• We guessed pies - it was poppies

Oh well, it was still a good performance for both trivia games and yet another good day.

We returned to the room and took a look outside. There were hundreds of seagulls following the ship. It was very cool.

As we retired this Christmas Eve in the Persian Gulf, a Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good night!