FUJAIRAH // Planners hope a new hot spring, discovered a few steps up a mountain from where a popular source healing water once bubbled, can help revive the site's former glory. Driven by the old saying that "when one hot spring dries up, another one starts flowing not far from it", a team of experts from Fujairah Municipality hiked along the mountain where Ain al Ghamour springs were once renowned for their healing power.
"There it was, like the old saying," said Asielah al Mualla, the head of the municipality's health section. "New cracks in the mountains with hot springs bubbling out of it." She was one of the team that found the new source this year, after being tipped off by a local resident. Located 20km south of Fujairah city, along the Hela ridges, the Ain al Ghamour spring was for decades sought out by residents and tourists alike for their healing powers.
Until it dried up two years ago, the spring was said to help with skin and muscle problems, rheumatism, backaches and arthritis. The spring still features on tourism websites, leading to an occasional trickle of disappointed visitors. The water in the old spring was as hot as 75¿C, with a potent sulphurous whiff. Now that unforgettable aroma has returned. "We could smell the new hot spring even before reaching it," said Mrs al Mualla. "That very strong rotten egg smell in the midst of greenery and rocks."
With the help of government environment and tourism agencies, the municipality has drawn up a plan to revive the site and turn it into a natural reserve. Once it gets final approval from the Ruler, the multimillion-dirham project should start later this year. "We want to do this right and we want to preserve the beautiful environment around it," said Mrs al Mualla. Dipping her feet into the new spring, which can be as hot as 90¿C, she could not keep them in the water for more than a few seconds.
"We also want to have better control over the springs so it doesn't dry up prematurely." Part of the plan is to use the facilities from the old spring. Two concrete basins, each about three metres by four, served as separate baths for men and women. For now, graffiti and abandoned metallic buckets litter the site. One regular "relief seeker" was Ahmed al Kaabi, a 65-year-old Emirati who used to drive from Dubai with his family of 12 to stock up on the water and bathe in the spring. It was a "family ritual", he said.
"It really worked well on my knees and helped clear all of our skin problems," he said. He was disappointed when, two summers ago, he visited the spring and found it all but dried up. "It was like a natural jacuzzi, and helped even the young among us with the stresses in their shoulders and their backs," he said. "Better than any massage I ever received." Upon hearing that there was a new hot spring on the same mountain, he said: "All good things come from nature. I hope this time around, we don't take this gift for granted."
rghazal@thenational.ae