um
Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. My name is Elisa, if you're new here welcome. Today we're
going to be exploring two places that we haven't been to before, two natural gems. The
first one is Purple Island, which is located 50 kilometres north of Doha in the city of Al Khor
Let's go. The drive here takes about one hour from Doha and the drive is actually accessible
for all vehicles so you can bring a sedan vehicle. Now you're going to find Al Khor City
on the way here, I mean after all Purple Island is also known as AL Khor Island and about the last
500 meters before you get to the parking area are off-road but it's very easy to drive on
with a small car so don't be afraid to make it here with a small vehicle
Once you park at the entrance you're going to find a big bridge which is what we're walking on right
now. You're going to find the kids and David behind me and you're going to see lots of mangroves so if
you love nature this is probably the place for you. We basically haven't gotten very far yet
because we're looking into the water and looking at all the crabs and fish and lots of other little
creatures and also it's a really good place for bird watching if you're into that as well
As you can see there's no facilities around here so you want to make sure that you bring
everything that you need with you so I'm going to show you quickly. Got our backpack
full of snacks and water so make sure you've got plenty of water particularly if you're
coming late in the afternoon um it is still going to be pretty warm unless you're coming
in winter, yeah let's get you some water we're all thirsty most importantly do make sure that
you bring rubbish bags and that you also bring them back with you. Unfortunately this is a big
problem all around Qatar and you're going to see it when you come here as well. There's plastic bags,
bottles, masks, all sort of rubbish scattered along the mangroves and I think looking after
our environment is everybody's job so make sure that you bring your rubbish bag. There is a big bin
right at the entrance before you make your final drive into the car park so when you finish packing
up your bag take it into the car with you and drop it off in one one of the big bins.
So we finally made it to the other side and we stopped just on the side of these big boulders
uh to get a little bit of shade and to have a little snack and now me and Javi
are going to go for a little walk around the island. Aren't we Javi?
In case you were wondering where the name Purple Island comes from, apparently the island used to
be used for dye production back in the day and the main production was purple dye so
hence the name Purple island. And the dye actually used to be extracted from mollusks that were found
in the area and I believe that they actually found a pit that had thousands and thousands of them
and that's how they found out that that's where the dye came from. As you can see once you get to
this side you're mainly just going to find desert again surrounded by the mangroves
and Joaquin is right behind me if you can see him that little tiny figure
he's managed to climb all the way up. Hey Joaquin!
We're gonna have to help him get down I think
Once you get here make sure to go and explore the island you can go for a little walk around it
won't take you that long to cover the whole area you can climb up the rocks as well and if you are
into water sports this is also a very good place to bring a kayak or a boat
and explore the mangroves. I believe there's also a business just off-site that does tours as well
if you like to pay for that instead. Alrighty so we're pretty much done here. We're just walking
back to the car park um I think we spent about one hour all up um I think it took us a little
bit longer because obviously we stopped to look at the fish and the flowers and whatnot
um if I'm going to make a recommendation is to say that you either come here really early morning
so that you don't get too hot or later in the afternoon to see the sunset.
Right in the middle of the day unless it's during winter it's just going to be too hot
So let's make it to our next location we're heading to the Al Thakira mangroves
So we just arrived at the Al Thakira mangroves and the first thing that
we did was to actually blow up the boat that we borrowed from one of
our friends so that we can take it out into the mangroves to explore
I'm pointing at you Dad yes yes
and as you can see we're also starting to run out of light. We wanted to fit two locations in
one afternoon it is starting to become quite hot in the afternoon so you don't really want to be
here in the middle of the day as there's really no shade anywhere. If you do come in the middle of the
day make sure to bring shade with you. All of these places are also in the middle of nowhere which
basically means that there's no toilet facilities uh there's no shops or anything like that so bring
all the water and food that you need with you and of course take your rubbish back with you
Now things that you can actually do in the area are swimming in the nearby beach. You can explore
the mangroves by kayak or boat and you can also fish and picnic. The Al Thakira mangroves forest
is one of Qatar's largest and oldest forests of the kind so it is really worth coming down
to check it out at least just to relax for an afternoon and it is only an additional 15 minute
drive from Purple Island. So if you also want to do it in one afternoon you definitely can
All right guys so the sun has completely set now and David's taking the boys out on the boat one
more time before we go home I don't know if you can see him there in the background. We really had
a lovely time here it actually turned out to be really nice and relaxing. I know that when we first
drove up we thought uh where are we what are we doing here but actually by the water as the sun's
setting you really can't beat that. It's really nice and green, you know the water's nice and
shallow and the kids can just play by the water so we've really enjoyed our visit here. I think we
preferred it a lot more than Purple Island but it is really worth visiting if you are in the area so
you might as well do it. So thank you so much for joining us, if you haven't hit the subscribe button
yet please do it. We've got a lot more content from Qatar coming up and we'll see you on the next one.