7 colours of sand in the Emirates

I think that you probably noticed that we like desert off-road. Although this is probably the least demanding of off road types, but here the most available. I think that once we leave the Emirates I will miss it so much!

Here are some pictures from the end of our last trip :) We were making movies while driving, but they are not ready yet. I will post them maybe next week :)

Tires inflating in progress. 

In this part of the Emirates (around Nazwa) sand has beautiful orange colour. Few words about sand in the Emirates.

7 colours of the sand in the Emirates

The seven-sands souvenir provides a colour code for each emirate on its reverse. There, you will find a neat label that informs you: Ras Al Khaimah - White; Abu Dhabi - Light red; Umm al-Qaiwain- Blue; Ajman - Cream; Dubai - Red; Sharjah - Brown and Fujairah- Black. According to the geologists, this attribution of one colour of sand to one emirate is more of a sales gimmick than a geological pointer. Says John Newby: "No particular colour is unique to one emirate and there may be pockets in the region where the specific colour may be found. 

For instance, the black-coloured sand found in Fujairah may be specific to dark-coloured mountain regions in the emirate and the white-coloured sand is found close to the RAK mountains because of the presence of sandstone. But since sand is shifting continuously, these and more colours are found in all emirates." A souvenir is an artistic creation and has to be aesthetically assimilated to stand as a symbol of the UAE and should be appreciated in that vein. The soil experts at ERWDA, however, gave us the chief reasons for the colours mentioned on the label behind the souvenir. 

Ras Al Khaimah: White - Made from sandstone, which has plenty of quartz. 
Abu Dhabi: Light Red - A lighter concentration of iron oxide. 
Dubai: Red - A stronger concentration of iron oxide. 
Sharjah: Brown - Contains some organic material, iron and lead sulphide sediments in the limestone. 
Umm al-Quwain: Blue - The greyish-blue colour comes from iron in its reduced condition. When iron stands in water it does not get oxidised and lends a greyish-blue hue. 
Ajman: Cream - This colour could possibly come from a lesser quantity of quartz present in silica, or it is possible that the sands have a greater sediment of white coral deposits. 
Fujairah: Black - The colour black possibly stands for the sand that is obtained from corrosion of gabro rock found in the mountain range in the emirate. (The Gulf News) 

This shed, you can see a piece of it on the picture below, it's a shop called '2 nd of December '(2nd December is a national holiday in the Emirates, the independence day. It marks the UAE's formal independence from the United Kingdom. The union became independent on 2nd December 1971).
Coming back to the shed, you can inflate the tires there, and they are selling a delicious masala chai! Mug for 2 dirhams :) This time, unfortunately, it was closed, so there was no chai :(

A date of this trip 23.09. Temperature in September is still high, but one can manage. The most important thing - water, you have to drink a lot of it.

Time to go back home...

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