One of my favorite activities when I lived in the United Arab Emirates was to once in a while go to Wadi Adventure. I've always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie and this was the place where I could get my fix.
Wadi Adventure is located in Al Ain at the foot of Jebel Hafeet which is a small mountain, yet one of the highest in the country. It is very close to the border with Oman and the setting is very much desert like.
There one can partake in different kind of water activities, such as kayaking, rafting, wakeboarding, surfing. There are also aerial activities available, such as an airpark, zipline and climbing wall.
Seven years ago, my manager at work decided to treat everyone in the department to a day off at this park. The news was of course welcomed with open arms by everyone. I had already been to the place a few times but most of my colleagues had not.
After an hour and half bus ride from Dubai, we arrived all excited at Wadi Adventure. We got our entrance passes sorted and we all all headed to the the changing rooms to changed into swimwear. Next, we made our way to the rafting area of the park. This was the planned activity for the morning.
The park's staff got us all in a room to watch a video and listen to the Dos & Don'ts.
The safety of everyone was obviously very important which is why it was compulsory that we all wear a life vest and an helmet.
Once geared up, we carried the rafts to the kayaking area for practice. The currents there were not so strong so it was easier for our raft guide to train us to paddle properly and work as a team. We could already see that some of us would struggle a bit. But it didn't matter, we were all there for the fun, not to become rafting champions.
Time for the real thing!
I can't remember how long we spent in the training area but once we got the approval of our guide, it was time to make it to the rafting area. A bit of apprehension for some of us, excitement for the others.
The park has 3 whitewater channels totaling around 1,100m in length (around 500m long for the rafting course alone). These are man made river beds with big rocks positioned at specific locations. Big pumps then push the water down the channel creating the current and the swirls when it hits the rocks.
We were told that the channels were changed every year by moving the rocks around, thus creating a new experience for the returning visitors.
To get to the start of the course on the upper level, we had to bring our rafts to a big conveyor belt.
Then it was all downhill, with the water splashing all over us, the screams from some of us, the guide shouting directions to follow, the raft turning 180 degrees and going backwards, etc.... in short, a lot of fun 🙂
It was all under the safety and watchful eyes of the lifeguards posted at different locations along the course.
It may not look like much on the pictures, but there was enough swirls and current to capsize the raft a few times sending us down the river on our backs along with our paddles.
We all repeated the course several times until we were just too tired to paddle anymore. I can't remember any one of us complaining. We all had an excellent time getting wet and rocked around 🙂
We then carried the rafts back to their storage, removed all the equipment off our bodies, thanked and bid goodbye to our guides. Time for lunch, this activity got us all hungry!
I know that it can't be compared to rafting down a real river but considering that we were located in the middle of the desert, this was as good as we could get it. It was a great morning filled with fun and laughter.
If your company decided to treat you and your colleagues to a whitewater rafting morning, would you like it? would you do it?
In the next post, I'll take you through the aerial activities of the park which we did in the afternoon. See you then!