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Animals

🌱 World Environment Day in Dubai 🌱

Posted on June 3, 2016

Friday the 3rd of June is World Environment Day and this year Dubai will be going blue! 🌊

By blue, I mean we’ll will be putting particular effort towards cleaning up the seafront and making the coastline a cleaner home for our various aquatic creatures. I’m SO glad to discover the Emirates Marine Environmental Group (EMEG), who along with Dubai Municipality, Nakheel & the Burj Al Arab Rehab Centre, have organised a lovely little morning at the Jebel Ali Marine Sanctuary (located in the Ghantoot Reserve). It’s all in aid of raising awareness about our impact on the marine and coastal environment… something that is never too late to change.

EMEG’s a non-profit organization based in UAE. Established in 1996 under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and the leadership of Ali Saqar Sultan Al Suweidi.

I’m particularly looking forward to helping release their rescued sea turtles! They’ve got over 40 nests this year and had a batch of 86 baby turtles hatching last week. We’ll also get involved with their beach clean-up & mangrove planting.

It’s a great initiative and I’m already looking at a few friends of mine who could do with some CSR partners 🙂

Life in the Bay for Christmas

Posted on December 29, 2015

I love South Africa. I’m particularly in love with the southern coastline, from Cape Town to Plettenberg, it’s nothing but blue skies, blue seas and beautiful people!

It feels like Christmas every day here, waking up to the most gorgeous bay views and sea air. It’s amazing how tired salty air can make you, but you definitely feel like you’ve had a long, fruitful (if not too eventful) day. The African sun is relentless too, warm yes, but strong, even when it’s overcast. We welcome the odd splashes of rain.

This sleepy bayside town wakes up for 2 weeks a year to a plethora of surfers, VIP’s and people like us, who are just looking for some winter sunshine, all mingling in beautiful café’s with quaint views, and the same long waiting lists.

The days are spent surfing, shopping, eating and napping, whilst the evenings gather everyone around the BBQ’s. The smell I tell you is fantastic. I’m a vegetarian but oh my…

I’ve been so glad for two particular necessities here, one is Neutrogena’s sun cream and the other, is their chap stick… with the winter winds out on the water raging, my normally semi-coiffed hair hasn’t had a look in this holiday, and it’s been great to let go. Apart from getting the odd eyeball whipping from the baby strands around my face, it’s actually been nice to not care.

We had a fantastic day out on the water yesterday, venturing out with the ocean safari team with our sights set on finding some whales, (it’s technically out of season but I was optimistic none the less). What we did see straight away was a large seal feasting on a stingray, happily enjoying his well deserved breakfast with the ever-growing fear of the dreaded ‘Robberg Express’ hanging over him. The Robberg express is not the channel between which all the sharks roam as I later found out; it’s the name of a singularly enormous creature that haunts the bay. (May be why I haven’t gotten into the water to surf yet…)

As he rolled on his back, waved at us and promptly sank beneath the waves, we moved on in search of more aquatic wonders. We headed straight for the coastline where we saw a collective of at least 30 bottlenose dolphins hugging the waves in fear of the Express, and followed their movements in the swells for a good half an hour. Soaking up the sun from the top deck, with these small, beautiful mammals playing next to us was a moment of absolute perfection. Then we spotted (I spotted and alerted the boat rather loudly) a baby hammerhead shark off to the right, swimming with a small family of indo-pacific humpback dolphins! (These are incredibly incredibly rare – hence my exclamation mark).

After what was the perfect way to start the day, we felt it was only right to end it just as memorably. Dinner last night was at a little romantic hotspot called Emily Moon River Lodge… it boasts spectacular views across polo fields and wet lands by day, the ideal place for a sunset aperitif or two!

Anyway, I’m off to enjoy the rest of it now… ☺

Adventure Animals

The Human & K9 Ultimate Challenge

Posted on December 15, 2015

For anyone that owns a dog, they already understand the unconditional love that these gorgeous animals share with us… they don’t ask for much; some food, a warm bed and of course some love in return! I have a small chihuahua who gets nothing but love and cuddles from our family and visits us all for extra attention throughout the year. What really gets my heart aching is the thought of these gorgeous pups up at K9 Friends who are all just looking to give someone their love, and are sat in kennels waiting for the day they are picked…

I was asked to come and join the Human & K9 Ultimate Challenge last weekend up in RAK, where dog lovers unite for a 2 hour trek up Jebel al Jais. Rather than bringing my own well-loved pooch, I was told that for the weekend we could adopt one from K9 Friends (with a little donation of just 100aed) and give them a day out! As there was no chance my teacup doggy was making it up and over any of those boulders, we jumped at the chance to adopt one from K9 Friends. Be warned – they are a VERY difficult place to find in Jebel Ali, as of course they don’t want multitudes of dogs being left on their doorstep abandoned. After a 2 hour search, we managed to locate them and picked up our companion for the trek, Sprout.

With only an hours drive to the mountain range and with good directions from the team, we parked up, signed up and started on the hike. The terrain was rocky and I had a bit of an encounter with a low lying tree branch, but it was a great adventure and worthy work-out! The post-event BBQ was well-deserved and our little Sprout was happy to rest all the way home.

He is an absolute BEAUTY, this white, fluffy pup with fox-like ears started the trek nervously but by the end he was acting like a little mountain goat! Friendly not just to us, but to all the other pups and people he met, Sprout is clearly the perfect family dog… have you got room in your home for a little more love?

Adventure Animals

My Love of Extraordinary Elephants

Posted on August 5, 2015

I know it’s a bit of a throwback post, but I believe it’s ALWAYS worth mentioning these beautiful creatures…

Thailand is a magical place, full of tropical escapes, hidden beaches and islands teeming with wildlife, culture and sunsets you can only dream of. I’ve visited Thailand many times, on a variety of trips, be it bar-hopping down Bangla Road, floating markets in Bangkok or Island escapes for a touch of paradise. Some of my favourite memories come from a place that’s very special to my heart in the north of the country in Chang Mai.

The Elephant Nature Park is without doubt a wondrous place, where Ele’s roam free, eating organically and swim without fear in the rivers that run through the plantation. Volunteers help with everything from washing and preparing the food, to applying the medicine that some of the Ele’s need, to building the tree-houses that visitors stay in. It’s a very hands on society and you’ll never hear a grumble out of anyone there.

The truth here about the Ele’s and their trapped-in-tourism futures is that they aren’t well fed, free or happy. Elephants are fierce creatures by nature, but in Thailand there’s a lot to be said about their lack of spirit. Taken through very specific ‘treatments’ as infants, these nellies are removed of their ‘wild spirits’ and taught to comply with human handlers. Not a detail I want to describe here, but trust me when I say it’s heartbreaking to see. Most of those at the park will have started life as domesticated elephants begging on the streets.

The elephant rides you see advertised everywhere have all put their beauties through this treatment, it’s horrid to see them tied up to a pole next to the road, without shade or water. You may recall see them swinging their heads from side to side too – perhaps it’s an early sign of the elephants going slightly mad, perhaps it’s boredom – either way, wouldn’t you rather see them as a family swimming, drinking, trumpeting as you float down the river enjoying the tropical sights instead?

The Elephant Nature Park is a wonderful place to volunteer in like I did… learn about Lek and her incredible voyage of kindness as she buys these elephants back from their handlers (mahouts) and helps those still stuck in captivity. Releasing them into her sanctuary where they are looked after by mahouts who care for them without sticks, nails, electricity…

There are other hotspots in Thailand who are helping to preserve these giants too, like at Thailand’s Golden Triangle Anantara resort where they have a ‘walking with giants’ experience as apposed to trekking with them.

I look forward to the days where Thailand is animal tourism free… but there’s a long way still to go. The biggest thing to take away from all that I’ve written, is not to support the animal tourism trade in Thailand at all… walk with them, don’t ride them!