Dubai Desert Adventure

After a day of successful meetings with our business partners, our local staff decided that we should go out to the Dubai desert on what is sometimes called a “Desert Safari” and what I have been calling a Dubai Desert Adventure.

I was not really sure what to expect, and this is always a fun thing. We met at my hotel around 3:00 and waited for our driver from Oriental Tours. He was right on time. We piled into the Toyota Land Cruiser (absolutely the best off road 4x4 you can buy) and started off. First we had to pick up one more passenger, a young Japanese woman whose husband was working in Saudi Arabia. She could not get a visa, so she stayed in Dubai.

The driver Mustafa said we had to go about 30 minutes to the “rendezvous point” and they off into the desert we go. Rendezvous point? I asked. Yes, we were meeting with nine other 4x4s for safety reasons.

Now, you know that I could spin the story that five of the other nine Toyotas were technicals, but that would be an exaggeration. Only was was. (that, actually, would be an exaggeration, too. After all, we were in Dubai, not Yemen.). The other nine vehicles were filled with a bunch of other tourists. German, Dutch, a TON of Italians from some company that couldn’t afford a name. They only had initials. A handful of Australians (dressed for a summer desert adventure) and us. We consisted of an American (me), a Frenchman (our local manager) and a Pakistani (Our local technical guy. Not technical like above, of course.)

We met at a gas station/convenience store, and then set out of the dunes.

We drove about 20o minutes and then all lined up in the desert like a convoy. The drivers all got out and let some air out of the tires so they would have better grip in the sand.

This, I was told, was only for show. Because of recent heavy rains, the sand was quite compact and was more like riding on a freeway. Nonetheless, we reduced air pressure and were off!

I have never really been a fan of “off roading” since I had to do it for a living while working as an engineer in Kemmerer, WY. But it was fun enough as we rolled through the sand, up and down over multiple sand dunes.

After about 45 minutes we took off to stop at a camel farm. They raise these camels for racing, and while we didn’t see any other people there, the animals seemed well treated.

Then we visited the Oasis Desert Camp. This consisted of several open air thatched huts with low tables and cushions to sit upon. We also had “Sand boarding” (sliding down a dune while sitting on a snow board – which my dignity did not allow), riding a camel (which it did), dressing up in dishdash, and eating some BBQ mutton, beef, and chicken. They also had a falcon handler.

The night ended with a belly dancer. She was very engaging, and got several of the crowd up to dance. That was very funny. At one point they got us all on our feet and we did something like the hokey pokey, where we had to try and shake was she was shaking. It was not pretty.

We got back to the hotel about 9:00. While perhaps not quite an adventure, it was certainly fun.