Direction of Travel

 I have another Trial which is being held at a Hotel in the Business Bay Area of Dubai. This is a relatively new area located between the Al Khail and Sheik Zayad roads and is notoriously difficult to get access to during the rush hour so I deliberately gave myself around and hour and 20 minutes to get to there notwithstanding the predicted 30 minute travel time.

I usually use Waze on my IPhone to get me to new destinations - not sure how we used to get anywhere before the ubiquitous travel apps that now proliferate. However, despite increasing sophistication, the route finding apps are still not really up to the task of dealing with multiple roads and severe traffic as was demonstrated this morning when I got stuck in the (expected) heavy rush hour traffic but once I was through that, I followed the direction of travel indicated on my phone but it transpired that I should have been on a route running parallel with the road I was on because I suddenly found myself on an overpass (the road I wanted was running underneath me) and I sailed past my intended destination at around the level of the 4th floor.

One of the main drawbacks of driving around Dubai is that if you do happen to take a wrong turn, the straight, long roads and the grid system (and reluctance to allow too may U turns) means that you can easily travel for 5 or 10 Kms before getting a chance to get back on the right track. 

So it proved today as I had a 14km drive along a relatively quiet dual carriageway heading towards Abu Dhabi before being able to do a U turn and head back to where I wanted to be. I also managed to hit a whole series of traffic jams so that my 50 minute “buffer” for arriving on time was being rapidly being whittled away so that by the time I arrived at the hotel, I had just over 10 minutes to take my place in the hearing room. I might just give myself 2 hours tomorrow.