It was my first time at the Eastern Mangroves kayaking in Abu Dhabi.
It was by definition one of the most popular places for water activities in Abu Dhabi….
So i decided i had to go there…
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Most of the boat rental companies usually opened at 7am closed at 7 pm,
I left at about 4.30pm Abu Dhabi time when it wasn’t too sunny…
Even though there was a little drizzle which got me worried for a second,
I shrugged it off and made my way out…
I have never been kayaking and so i was very excited to try it out
Although i was a bit terrified since it was open water and i worried about the kayak rolling over
And me falling into the water as i had seen in most pictures on google…
So before my trip i researched on “How to not fall off a kayak” 🙂
Didn’t really have much luck with that search…..lol….
The Eastern Mangroves had its own special entrance but since i was going there for the first time,
I confused it with the entrance for the Anantara Hotel Eastern Mangroves located in the same location and linked to the same body of water.
I ended up going through the Anantara hotel entrance,
Asking basically every staff i saw along the way how to get to the kayaking waterfront.
They happily directed me,
I thought their service was amazing even though i was only their guest for about 3 minutes…
I walked through the cream colored buildings and fancy named restaurants till i got to what looked like a water front
With hotel apartments surrounding it in a u shaped design.
It was the eastern mangroves kayaking abu dhabi waterfront,
It is a beautiful place…. and for a moment i wondered what it would be like to live there…
I counted at least 6 restaurants in the waterfront alone which included an Indian restaurant,
A Starbucks café and a couple of other ones whose names i either can’t remember
Or at the time seemed a little too difficult to pronounce…lol…
The water front housed all kinds of water activities and boats besides the kayaks,
Most of them were big and had to have at least 4 or more people to make a trip…
There were at least 4 to 6 different kayaking and boat rental companies at the waterfront.
Their representatives stood at the entrance of the waterfront waiting for people interested in at least one water activity or the other to convince them that their prices are the best.
One guy in particular decided to throw out a discount for us on the kayaks and so we decided to go with him…lol….
I noticed that the prices for renting the kayaks can go as high as AED 300 if the kayaks are pre-booked online,
It’s better to go there in person to rent the kayak, when you are ready to avoid being over charged.
My sister had previously used the kayak meant for two people and wanted us to do the same….
But since the couple kayak had one seat in front of the other, you couldn’t really see the person behind you on the kayak…
Due to this reason,
We decided to go with single kayaks since we hadn’t seen each other for a while and had a lot of catching up to do…
Later on during the kayaking trips i saw a three seat kayak made for people who would like to go in threes or families who had just one kid….
Each person of course had their own paddle but had to work together simultaneously to be able to kayak properly.
We paid a total of AED 80, 40 dirhams per kayak rental after discount
The salesman informed us that the original price was AED 60
He also said that when they had promotions or sales, the prices could go as low as AED 30 for each person and so encouraged us to come back again.
He also gave us 4 free bottles of water and a water proof bag to put our personal items to keep them from getting wet.
After sitting properly, an instructor approached us…
He instructed us to hold the paddle with a firm grip at the center,
And that to move forward we had to paddle right and left in a clockwise motion simultaneously to keep moving.
To turn to the right, we had to paddle in a clockwise direction on the left and to turn to the left, we had to paddle in a clockwise direction on the right.
To stop the kayak, we had to paddle anti-clockwise in both directions simultaneously until the kayak stops.
Unfortunately, i didn’t understand anything he had said and just nodded my head.
I didn’t want him to repeat himself all over again because i wasn’t sure i would understand what he meant no matter the number of times he explained it.
I figured that i would get a hang of it as the trip progressed…and it turns out i did…:)
The instructor also told us not to try to leave the kayak while in the water…
Although i had no idea why anyone would want to do that in the first place…
The idea of it alone made me laugh…..
He also told us to keep out of the way of any oncoming boat….
And most importantly, not to go out to the sea as there aren’t any kayaks in that area.
He told us to take a U turn to circle back to where we had initially started and again that didn’t make much sense until we were half way into our trip and could see the u turn….
At first, the whole thing seemed like soooo much fun until our arms started to ache half way during the trip
We were too exhausted to paddle to get back to the water front so we just stopped paddling and drifted..
We were told by random boat drivers to paddle out of the way of the oncoming boats to avoid being hit…lol….
I noticed a lot of water coming into my kayak from the paddle during the trip making me regret wearing my favorite pair of jeans instead of shorts on this particular trip.
Half way into the trip, we saw a couple of guys who found a bridge-like shortcut to the other part of the water
They didn’t have to go round in the “u-turn” the instructor had told us about….we decided to follow them…..
We stopped on the white sand and got out to drag out kayak all the way to the other part of the water while other kayakers stared at us like we were crazy,
That day i discovered that a pulling a kayak along the sand is very stressful!
We regretted our decision because our shoes got really muddy and we were exhausted,
To make matters worse, there were crabs at almost every turn which terrified the crap out of me.
In no time, we were back in our kayaks and on the water….
We had initially thought the shortcut would take us back to the waterfront where we initially started,
But we were wrong….
We ended up kayaking to what looked like a beach area where people were swimming,
Since we didn’t bring any swimsuits and were too exhausted, we decided to head back…
On our way back…..the worst happened…
It started to rain……
I kept screaming as i thought of my hair,
My clothes and shoes and the fact that we didn’t have any other outfit with us asides the ones we had on.
All other kayakers started to turn back towards the waterfront because of the rain.
Luckily for us, the rain stopped before we got completely soaked….
We were still able to walk in them, although we probably looked like two homeless people after the entire experience.
I would be lying if i said i didn’t have fun, it was a good experience….one i wouldn’t forget in a hurry…
But of course next time, i will definitely remember to wear shorts!
What did you think of this experience at the eastern mangroves kayaking abu dhabi?
Would you go there?, or have you?
If yes, tell me about your experience at the eastern mangroves kayaking Abu Dhabi
Leave a comment below…
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