My trip to the RAK Nature's Treasures Museum!
Today we stop by another place closer to home when we visit the RAK Nature's Treasures Museum. Now I'm breaking from my normal discussion of where you can find the place we are visiting, because the "museum" is a project started by one man who has a specific interest and love for the UAE's natural history. As a result at least for now it is not officially recognized to any large extent. The place has been visited by one of the local newspapers (which I will link in the "Want to know more about this place" area) but they mostly just talk about the guy himself rather than the actual place. Other than that I couldn't find any more information about the place so I don't have an exact location to give y'all. What I can do is give you this email address (raknaturestreasures@gmail.com) which is linked to the project and this number (+971 55 750 5556) so perhaps you will be able figure it out; and I will also say that we did talk to the gentleman ourselves and he is very committed to the place so I am sure he will find some other ways to publicize the location in the near future.
Right, now on with the visit. When we first arrived at the place that we had been directed to we found a huge enclosed plot of land that was fenced off all around with one entrance which was locked; after sitting around for a few minutes a nice man (who I'm guessing was the caretaker of the area) came out and let us in. Upon entering the gate the first thing that we were met with was a pen with three goats and a pathway going to the left leading to a large warehouse-looking building. The goats seemed very satisfied with their lodgings especially the large climbing course that was installed for them to have fun with.
The warehouse-looking building ended up being the actual "museum" and it was pretty impressive, with a large area of everything from rock samples to shells to spices to animal statues. All of it was kept in pretty good condition and there were the beginnings of some informational posters set up here and there. Clearly a lot of work was put into the place and you could see that the nice man who opened it was trying to make it a more fulfilling experience. My personally favorite part was the rocks and minerals section because I am always fascinated by strangely colored and weirdly shaped rocks of different kinds.
After leaving the warehouse/museum we continued down the pathway that ended up taking us by a few small empty cages and a slightly bigger enclosure with several different kinds of birds in it. There were some pheasants, ducks, flamingos, and even a peacock in that area, as well as a small pond with some turtles and a couple of tortoises sitting nearby.
Now once we had finished looking at the birds it seemed to us that that was it, but then we stumbled across an alley way that seemed as though it might be part of the path, so we decided to follow it. When we came out on the other side we were met with another huge area of land with some much bigger animals and a dog guarding it all. The dog was a bit alarmed with our presence but he was quick to accept a scratch on the neck, his other doggy friend however was satisfied with keeping her distance. On the right there was a long cage with some chickens and a bigger segment with a deer, and on the left there was a large segmented area with a camel, an emu, a gazelle, horses, donkeys, and some more goats.
Once we were finished admiring the animals we popped by the dogs one more time, and then we left.
So that does it! All in all I really liked the place, it is a self funded project that this gentleman opened so naturally it's a work in progress, but for what it is the place is very well set up. Anyway thanks for reading and be sure to pop back in next time! Also sorry for the late post I will make sure to do everything I can to keep it on schedule next time.