We love to walk down the free beach at the north end of the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, and when we do, we stop to pick up all the pieces of glass that we come across and dump them in the bins.
Today, we gathered a lot of glass - mainly due to the surf tumbling onto the beach, as it's uncovered, or washed up, a lot more than usual.
We also rescued some wildlife!
On the last of our usual 6 laps of the beach, we came across 2 Indian gentlemen throwing something back in the water. It was a small turtle and unfortunately, due to the men still having their shoes on, they didn't throw it back far enough.
We waded out to rescue it, and as J refloated it, it was obvious that it was ill. Covered in barnacles, it made a feeble attempt to swim away but was very weak.
We carried it down the beach and gave it to one of our dive instructor friends from the Pavilion Dive Centre at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, who promptly took it into the diveshop to receive some TLC.
We hope that it will survive. We know that it has a better chance of doing so now, than if it was left to fend for itself on the beach.
Wth all the disturbance occuring to their natural habitat in the shapes of palms and world maps, these little guys need all the help that they can get.
Although it's now cooler in the UAE in comparison to other months, it's still warm enough to go for walks on the beach, barefoot and strolling along the water's edge to catch the waves as they wash onto the sand.
Our nightly view as we walked
We're going to miss this as we now head back to Germany for Christmas in the cold!
We’re back in Dubai for 2 weeks and already loving the warmth after colder Germany.
Before we came away, J had a business meeting in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe which is an hour away from Stuttgart.
We have friends just out of Stuttgart who we visited over New Year, so this was a perfect opportunity to take the ICE train a day earlier than the meeting to stay overnight with P&M in Herrenberg.
ICE trains are a superb way to travel the country. Travelling at up to 250kph, they're comfortable and a much easier way to get around Germany rather than running the over-hyped security insanity and paranoia which rules air travel nowadays.
Leaving the new Berlin Hauptbanhof Railway station at the ungodly hour of 5:30am, the ICE train made short work of the distance and we arrived in Stuttgart to change trains; finally being met with open arms and big hugs by P&M at the Herrenberg station at 1pm.
It was another perfect autumn day, so after dumping our gear back at the apartment, we headed out into the countryside fringing around the Schwarzwald, aka the Black Forest. After eating lunch at a superb traditional German restaurant, we walked it off by trekking up to a schloss in the woods, revelling in the cold air and marvelling at the beauty of Mother Nature who was busy turning the greenery into yellow, orange and gold.
After walking off lunch, we were hungry again! Next stop was a Wasserschloss, or water castle, where we piled into the teahouse to order cake and coffee.
Luckily we only ordered 2 pieces – look at the size of them - those are fullsize dinner plates!
It was the most delicious Black Forest gateau and Cherry torte that we have ever tasted. What made it even tastier was being in great company with good friends, having yet another amazing adventure!
