My UAE Story: Camels, Salt Lake and Adam’s epic adventures

Adam’s weekend turned into a full-on desert adventure with cuttlefish encounters, camels and getting stuck in "salt mud". SUPPLIED

Twelve-year-old Adam Ibrahim Fouad is no stranger to adventure. Born in the US, he spent most of his life in Dubai, with a three-year side quest in Canada. But now that he’s back in the UAE with his family, he’s on a mission: to explore every weird, wild and wonderful corner of this country—camel kisses, mystery sea creatures, and salty misadventures included. Adam’s family is the type that spends weekends off the beaten path. “My mom just Googles places and we go,” he tells Expat Media. That’s how they ended up face-to-face with a herd of camels in Sharjah’s Mleiha desert. One curious camel even stuck its head inside their car and licked his sister’s face. (Gross? Yes. Hilarious? Also yes.) Then there was that time at Kite Beach, where Adam dove into the sea hoping to spot some sea critters—only to come face-to-face with a shell-covered creature that made him panic-sprint back to shore. “I thought it was an undiscovered sea creature!” he says. Plot twist: it was just a chill cuttlefish, a squid-like sea animal that can change color. But the wildest story? The Salt Lake trip. What was supposed to be a chill drive turned into a full-on desert survival story: lost maps, no signal, sunken feet, stuck dad, abandoned slippers, and salt everywhere—including the car, their pants from Canada, and their souls. And yet, somehow, they ended the day at a 5-star hotel, playing giant chess and washing salt off their legs. Because of course they did. Adam says these adventures are “stressful, but I always manage it.” Now that’s the energy of a real explorer. In his words: I always used to go to places in the country to explore all the seven emirates. I remember this one time we went to Mleiha in Sharjah and we stopped in the middle of the desert because we saw a lot of camels and when we opened the window, one camel put its head inside the car and licked my sister’s face! (laughs) That was one of the funniest and weirdest moments of my life that I can remember! Also, one time we went to Kite Beach in Dubai and I went swimming. I was expecting to see some crab or sea creature. Then I found this big shell. It looked like many pieces of a broken shell, so I went to check it. But when I swam closer to it, I found it was moving and it wasn’t broken pieces but a creature connected to these shells. I got so scared, so I swam directly to my mom at full speed and told her what I found. I said it might be a creature humanity never discovered! She told me it might be something else. So I came back to it and made sure it was really moving. It did, so I got scared and told my mom. She told me to give her my glasses so she can see. When she checked, she was shocked at what she saw. But when she got closer, she found it it was just a cuttlefish. I was like, "What’s a cuttlefish?" She told me it’s just like a squid that changes color. Half an hour later, I went exploring the rocks on the shore and spotted three more cuttlefish. Another time, my mom suggested we discover Salt Lake. I was like, "What is that?" But we went anyway. It took us two hours. We couldn’t find it at first and we passed by what looked like an abandoned place. We climbed a hill and finally found a big mud of.. salt water. It was crunchy when you step on it. I stepped on it and my feet got stuck—I sank like a meter! My dad helped me, but he got stuck too and lost his special slippers. His pants were dirty, the pair we brought all the way from Canada! On the way back, we found some ancient desert mushrooms. Then we had to drive the car down a hill and lost internet connection, so we couldn’t find our way. We ended up in a five-star hotel just to wash our legs, but stayed to have lunch and played big chess. This adventure was stressful and tiring, but I managed it—as I always do.

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