Have you been on an adventure trip to the Al Thakira mangroves yet?

A number of eco-adventure activities at Al Thakira continue to attract many Qatar residents who want to experience a unique retreat during the weekend while exploring the country’s “hidden natural heritage,” Gulf Times reported.

Al Thakira, home to Qatar’s mangroves and located north of Al Khor, has become a popular year-round kayaking and snorkelling destination.

Such is the attraction that one can find a number of visitors even during the summer.

From picnics and bird-watching to having barbeque sessions while gazing at the sky in the evening, there are plenty of reasons for regular visitors to return to the place and spend another fun-filled break outside the city.

“I love doing it,” Entalek CEO Steve Rhodes told Gulf Times. Entalek, an eco-adventure company in Qatar, helps in promoting the country’s environment and heritage.

He said many visitors, especially first-timers, are “surprised and amazed to see some of the beautiful places in Qatar and a natural forest in the desert.”

Since Al Thakira is one of the safest places to kayak, many people take their children along as they explore the area.

Most of the activities in this place also form part of Qatar Summer Festival’s Adventure Fun, an annual event organised by the Qatar Tourism Authority.

Rhodes believes that people in Qatar of all ages will enjoy the activities at Al Thakira despite the searing temperatures this time of the year.

Visitors normally wait for the sun to go down and spend most of their time kayaking in the evening.

Meanwhile, some visitors are also planning to roam around the area to look not only for real animals, but also a bunch of virtual creatures with Pokemon Go, the smartphone game.

Many players, mostly children and young adults, are collecting various types of “creatures” from different places across the country, including waterbodies and green areas such as parks.

Besides Al Thakira, Rhodes said they also hold kayak trips at night at The Pearl-Qatar and near the Museum of Islamic Art.

“We do a lot of programmes to teach kids about animals and plants in Qatar, do field trips and activities that get them outside to enjoy Qatar’s natural environment and appreciate the natural world,” he noted.

“We also do marine educational trips at The Pearl-Qatar.

“We teach children all about the fishes in Qatar and about the animals that live in The Pearl and then we take them to the Corniche and they compare the environment in the two locations and all the living things that’re there,” he added.

“We focus on educating the people about the history of the dhows.

This is 50% of what we do and the other 50% is designing educational programmes for schools based on Qatar’s environment.”

Most of the time, Rhodes said these programmes are being integrated to the curriculum of the schools, and students get excited to see things in real life, which they usually read only in books.

Courtesy: gulf-times.com