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Al Fujaira lay on the east coast, so Maille rented a car on the very same day. In order to avoid the traffic jams in Dubai and Sharjah, he first drove along the coast to the north, then through Ajman and towards Umm Al Quwain, before turning east.

At first he drove through the desert region, behind Masafi then through mountains, the Hajar Mountains, which looked like bleak mounds of stones. Maille found the landscape so ugly that he felt physically queasy. Only in the contrasting light and from a certain distance was he able to find them aesthetically acceptable – the less one perceived of them, the better.

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