{"id":20231,"date":"2014-02-20T09:24:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T09:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/masterchef-australia-star-george-calombaris-impressed-by-abu-dhabis-sustainability-efforts\/"},"modified":"2014-02-20T09:24:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T09:24:00","slug":"masterchef-australia-star-george-calombaris-impressed-by-abu-dhabis-sustainability-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2014\/02\/masterchef-australia-star-george-calombaris-impressed-by-abu-dhabis-sustainability-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"MasterChef Australia Star George Calombaris Impressed by Abu Dhabi&#8217;s Sustainability Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Kayaking in Abu Dhabi's Eastern Mangroves - Ghassan Al Hashemi, Ian Walk\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-456429\" data-mce-src=\"http:\/\/www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Kayaking-in-Abu-Dhabis-Eastern-Mangroves-Ghassan-Al-Hashemi-Ian-Walk-300x199.jpg\" height=\"159\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Kayaking-in-Abu-Dhabis-Eastern-Mangroves-Ghassan-Al-Hashemi-Ian-Walk-300x199.jpg\" style=\"background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; cursor: default; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 21px;\" title=\"Kayaking in Abu Dhabi's Eastern Mangroves - Ghassan Al Hashemi, Ian Walk\" width=\"240\" \/><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 21px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">The amiable judge of MasterChef Australia, George Calombaris took to the waters around Abu Dhabi\u2019s Eastern Mangroves last weekend to discover more of the UAE capital\u2019s eco-system and sustainability efforts.<\/span><\/span><br \/><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 21px;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Calombaris, who was in the UAE capital for a starring role in the annual Gourmet Abu Dhabi culinary festival, took to the channels running through the mangroves with Ian Walker, the skipper of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (ADOR) \u2013 the emirate\u2019s entry for the 2014\/2015 Volvo Ocean Race \u2013 and local guide Ghassan Al Hashemi of Sea Hawk Tours Watersports who runs daily Eastern Mangroves kayaking trips.&nbsp;<\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"kipper Ian Walker and Chef George Calombaris\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-456430\" data-mce-src=\"http:\/\/www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/kipper-Ian-Walker-and-Chef-George-Calombaris-300x199.jpg\" height=\"199\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/kipper-Ian-Walker-and-Chef-George-Calombaris-300x199.jpg\" style=\"border: 0px; cursor: default; float: right;\" title=\"kipper Ian Walker and Chef George Calombaris\" width=\"300\" \/><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cGhassan\u2019s running commentary, pointing out the rich bio-diversity of marine and bird life, brought the natural habitat to life,\u201d said Calombaris.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cI was here two years ago visiting Abu Dhabi fish market and was amazed at the variety of species, having found out more about the importance of the mangroves as an eco-water filter, and seeing the effort to preserve them, I now understand how those species can thrive. They are doing a really good job here.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Calombaris was also impressed with moves taken to transform the Eastern Mangroves into a sensitive tourism destination in the heart of the city.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cIt\u2019s an urban retreat \u2013 honestly it\u2019s amazing to see it here. With people out on the water, others dining in the open air restaurants&nbsp;<\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ghassan's running commentary, pointing out the rich bio-diversity, brou\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-456431\" data-mce-src=\"http:\/\/www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/unnamed-96-300x199.jpg\" height=\"199\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/unnamed-96-300x199.jpg\" style=\"border: 0px; cursor: default; float: left;\" title=\"Ghassan's running commentary, pointing out the rich bio-diversity, brou\" width=\"300\" \/><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">and cafes, you\u2019d never think you were on the edge of a major city.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Ian Walker was equally impressed with the growing number of people getting out onto the water at the Eastern Mangroves \u2013 sailing, stand-up paddle boarding and kayaking.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cIt\u2019s a great trip for an entire family and I\u2019m thrilled to see so many people actively enjoying the water. That\u2019s what our campaign is all about \u2013 getting people interested in watersports and getting them to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle and everything the waters can offer.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">Ghassan Al Hashemi says his daily trips through the mangroves are proving more popular with kayakers regularly spotting birds, Egyptian geese, the odd dolphin and sometimes a rare spotting of a fox.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\u201cIt\u2019s important for people to understand the vital role the mangroves play in our eco-system -this way they can find all this out while enjoying the sun and the setting,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The amiable judge of MasterChef Australia, George Calombaris took to the waters around Abu Dhabi\u2019s Eastern Mangroves last weekend to discover more of the UAE capital\u2019s eco-system and sustainability efforts. Calombaris, who was in the UAE capital for a starring role in the annual Gourmet Abu Dhabi culinary festival, took to the channels running through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}