Al Ain is our last stop before Oman. It's called the garden city because it is very green. That's a relative term however as I don't think someone from the UK would describe the place as green! Sadly we have very little time to enjoy as we have far to go and precious little time. We must be back in Dubai by Sunday morning and we are venturing into the North of Oman tomorrow so there is only time for one special thing to see tomorrow morning - the Jebel Hafeet hillclimb. It will have do be done in the morning as our 25 year old Italian car is struggling in the heat. Today it did a little wee after we pulled over so we had to let it cool down and then top it up. Afterwards we had to turn the heater on when going up hills to stop the engine from overheating. Given that the ambient temperature was already 45C the addition of the heater wasn't really ideal, to put it mildly. Needs must. Whilst the car was cooling we went for a wander through the shifting sands of the Arabian desert that we had been driving through. It was utterly fantastic and in Oman I am going for a proper walk through the dunes and imagine what it would be like to journey through them on a camel. Very peaceful I would imagine.

In India some half wit in a truck backed into us and took out our left headlight lens as well as some minor damage to the front substructure. Since then we have had no headlights as the glare created by the left headlight would have blinded any on-coming traffic. This created a predicament. How does one source an alfa part and get it delivered to India/Dubai when our location was constantly changing. After posting on the Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Australia (AROCA) website a member of the Alpine chapter Inc came to the rescue and went to great lengths to post us a replacement head light glass. We would like to thank said member for his generosity and swift action. Julian was very excited when it arrived and enjoyed it's excellent babushka doll wrapping. After sourcing some silicon and a gun we had a fully functioning headlight again. Fantastic. It was truly appreciated.

The following morning we woke up very early filled with purpose. In the gathering light we gave our suspension some much needed attention. The tightening of a few key bolts and nuts removed the slop and occasional clunk that had developed whilst crossing India. The suspension needed to be in peak condition as it was about to get a workout. Just a few kilometers from our excellent hotel lay the base of Jebel Hafeet. A sheik with to much money had built a palace on top of a mountain which is quite impressive in it's own right but it wasn't the palace we had come for, it was the road to the palace. The Sheiks love of motorsport is evident in his design, a twisting mountain climb that snakes up the mountain and is flanked along it's entire length by concrete barriers. There are two reasons for leaving early in the morning. The first is that we hoped to have the road to ourselves and the second is that our little Alfa was having some cooling issues in the desert heat and we were hoping that the radiator will be able to cope with the gruelling mountain climb in the cooler morning air. Although we got some great video footage I am sorry to report that I forgot to take any still pictures of the drive up or down so I only have one image of the actual road which I took from some parking at the mountain peak. Tiff from Fifth Gear did a brief piece on this hillclimb. Watch it here.