The Fast and the Furious - 4x4 Sand Dune Bashing

While in Dubai – Matt and I went on a dessert safari. It started with Sand Dune Bashing in a 4x4 and ended in a “traditional” dessert camp complete with Seesha, Arabic Coffee (discovered to be instant), and hena painting… and dinner. It was fun to just sit and watch the regional dancing under the stars enjoying that the tempture was now closer to 20 degrees instead of 35 degrees!






The 4x4 sand dune bashing was awesome… the sand is actually a more red colour out in the dessert than what you find closer to the Gulf – we were in a Toyota Landcruiser and our driver, who was actually originally from Egypt, was crazy! Generally the cars travel in little groups of 2 or 3 vehicles and a few times we came close to bashing the same dune as another truck. It was sort of like a offroad truck meet not unlike the car races depicted in the Fast and the Furious movie. All the drivers know each other.. and we, the tourists, are merely the “job” that must be done when really they've all come together to hang out, check out someone's new skid plate, and I am sure laugh about the sometimes silly tourists. It was surreal when we all started out (about 15 trucks all start at the same point and split off from there) it felt like we were part of a 4x4 truck gang… rollin' out…

Matthew and I also got to ride a camel that night, the most interesting part (or daunting) is when the camel is standing up or sitting down while you're seated on their back. Because the camels joints are in opposite directions, they can actually fall to their knees (with their full burden) and then ease the rest of the way down. This is naturally a little bit of a jarring experience – but it was super neat, and they really are amazing animals!

Dinner was nothing really special, however they did provide entertainment in the form of cultural dances from a few Middle Eastern countries include several from the various kingdoms of the UAE.

The scenery was amazing, and after we were done we stopped to take photos of the setting sun…