This year, the three day Eid Al Adha holiday coincides nicely with the preceding two day weekend and the end of the monsoon in Salalah. It is a rare opportunity to see it blanketed in bright Irish green after the downpours have ceased. Here is the proposed agenda: To sign up, email Yves at queromain@gmail.com by Tuesday, September 16. Please include the following information: your name, email address, mobile phone number, number in your party, type of vehicle you have and, if you have an off-road vehicle, number of riders you can accommodate. Meeting point and other details will be given by return email to all participants. And be sure to make a booking for your party at one of the hotels/guest houses in Ibri for Thursday night, Oct. 2.  

Come and join us for after-dinner drinks at this informal get-together to chat about ENHG activities.  Open to the general public.

The Sharjah Desert Park, on the highway between Sharjah City and Al Dhaid, consists of the Natural History & Botanical Museum, Arabia’s Wildlife Centre and the Children’s Farm.  This is an excellent opportunity to get clued in to this region’s natural history in air-conditioned comfort.  NB: bring a pair of binoculars if you’d like to do a spot of birding on the grounds. Park opening hours on Saturdays are 11:00 am to 5:30 pm. Entry fee for adults is 15 Dhs each. Lunch is available at the Wildlife Centre’s food court.  You may bring your own lunch if you wish. ENHG members who want to join our convoy will meet up on Saturday at 8:30 am at the Al Samha ADNOC Oasis service station on the E-11, heading towards Dubai. This is the ADNOC with the large tent-covered food court, a few km past the Al Taweelah exit.  We plan on arriving just before 11:00 am, when the venue opens. Some of us will stay until closing time, but others may arrange to leave earlier if they wish. Open only to paid-up members of the ENHG; all participants go at their own risk. To sign up for this trip, contact Keith Taylor: kjtaylor13@yahoo.com  / 050-820-4938.  A sign-up sheet will also be available at the ENHG meeting on Sept 16th. There is no limit to the number of participants on this trip.

The co-presenters of this talk, Karim Alaa, and Mohamed Kamel, will relate personal experiences both as members of a professional environmental crisis response team and as organisers of volunteer-groups responding to issues such as coastline erosion and threats to coral populations. Their talk will touch on the following points: 1.) The ADNOC crisis team: who they are and what they do. 2.) The ADNOC biodiversity action plan. 3.) The story of north east Bab (NEB) mangrove project. 4.) The Zirku island artificial coral reef. This evening is being planned not as a one-way lecture, but rather with a focus on interaction with the audience, so come along prepared to share.  Your own questions and comments along the way will be highly appreciated. NB:  According ADNOC policy the speakers are not representing ADNOC officially. The data used in the presentation is not under any copyright regulation. ADNOC confidential data and resources will not be mentioned or used. About the Speakers:  Karim Alaa Mohamed is an oil and gas engineer and an oil spill and HAZMAT officer working for ADNOC.  Karim has an M.SC in mechanical engineering specialising in "failure analysis in offshore oil platforms" from Alexandria University. He has a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering Alexandria University in Egypt. In addition, he is an active member of an environmental group related to the Arab League and has a passionate personal interest in marine conservation.   Mohamed Kamel Sadek is a marine biologist and environmental researcher working for ADNOC.  He has an M.Sc. in Marine Biology specialising in classification of Red Sea coral using DNA analysis.  He also has a B.Sc. in Marine Biology from Suez Canal University in Egypt