Sheikh Hamdan shares footage of falconry trip in Uzbekistan

Crown Prince of Dubai regularly travels to the Uzbek desert with his falcons

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed has shared photos of a falconry trip in Uzbekistan. All photos: @faz3 / Instagram

Sheikh Hamdan is a keen traveller.

He regularly shares photos and footage from his international trips.

Sheikh Hamdan and his travel buddies.

Making food on the trip.

Keeping warm in the Uzbek desert.

Sheikh Hamdan posted another video with a falcon.

The campsite during Sheikh Hamdan's trip.

Sheikh Hamdan shares some of his photography from the trip.

Sheikh Hamdan is a keen photographer, as well as a wildlife enthusiast and traveller.

Sheikh Hamdan also has a love of horses.

Sheikh Hamdan's photo of horses in the fields in Uzbekistan.

Sheikh Hamdan's photo of a herd of horses in Uzbekistan.

A campfire shot by Sheikh Hamdan.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed has been sharing footage and photographs from his falconry trip in Uzbekistan.

The Crown Prince of Dubai, who has nearly 15 million followers on Instagram, shared a gallery of photos on Monday with his entourage, which includes special adviser Ismaeil Alhashmi, who recently joined Sheikh Hamdan and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, on a hunting trip to Yorkshire, England.

Close friend Ahmad Jaber Al Harbi and his son Maj, or Mohammed, and Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Juma, better known as Uncle Saeed, are also pictured on the trip.

The photo gallery is simply captioned "#Uzbek", with heart emojis in blue, white and green, to symbolise the nation's flag.

He posted a second gallery on Tuesday of some beautiful photography from his trip, including images of horses in fields, the camp and campfire, and starry skies.

Sheikh Hamdan, who is affectionately known by his nickname Fazza, also posted a dramatic video of falcons flying around and fighting in the skies above Uzbekistan, with a beautiful time-lapse of the sunset and star-filled night's sky.

The falcon is the UAE's national bird, a symbol of force and courage, and has played a part in Emirati culture for centuries.

Falconry is a traditional sport practised for more than 2,000 years, with the skills being passed down through generations of Emiratis, and Abu Dhabi is home to the world's largest falcon hospital and a museum dedicated to the bird of prey.

UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, wrote a book called Falconry as a Sport — Our Arab Heritage, and Sheikh Hamdan joined the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Centre in the early 2000s to launch the Fazza Championship for Falconry as a way to revive interest in the sport.

He regularly travels to Uzbekistan for falconry trips. It's a favoured location for Middle Eastern royalty and participants in the sport, as it allows hunting in the wild.

Sheikh Hamdan frequently posts photos and videos of his travels on social media. In recent months, he's posted from the UK, where he spent much of the summer.

He demonstrated his fondness for horses at a racehorse auction by Tattersalls in England this month. The series of photos showed him with Sheikh Mohammed, with one image of father and son looking at each other with a beautiful steed in the backdrop.

During the summer, he was also spotted shooting in Yorkshire, riding the Tube in London and strolling with his twins, Sheikh Rashid and Sheikha Shaikha, in a park with his father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid.

Sheikh Hamdan also went viral in July, after he stopped to take pictures with fans who spotted him in his car in the UK capital.

The video was posted by Al Harbi and was captioned: "When a Dubai resident spotted @faz3 in #London".

Sheikh Hamdan is known for his love of adventure, often jetting off to new destinations and has been spotted spearfishing, skydiving, cycling, climbing, horse riding and much more in far-flung locations.

Earlier this year, the Crown Prince of Dubai shared more photos of some of these travels to Instagram, showing him puffin-spotting on Scotland's remote Isle of May, off the country's east coast; in the Maldives casually dressed and sitting in front of an overwater villa, surrounded by the Indian Ocean; and in Mongolia, dressed in a powder blue kandura, pouring tea al fresco with the country's rolling plateaus as a backdrop — to name a few.

Scroll through the gallery below to see more of Sheikh Hamdan's travels