Who Needs Roller Coasters?

Six months ago, I told Michelle that I would “help” with the blog sometime. Well, true to my not-so-gung-ho nature, six months later and I have written nothing.. until now. Here I submit a brief tale of our desert safari.

One Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago Michelle, Anna, and I were picked up in a slightly aged Toyota Land Cruiser for a "desert safari" adventure. We had been reading and hearing about these things and had to try it ourselves. In preparation, Michelle and Anna took medicine to prevent motion sickness. Of course, yours truly didn't require medication.

We rumbled off into the 105+ desert afternoon with a quick and perhaps aggressive pace that gave some small hint of the adventure to follow. We went through a few roundabouts with enough speed to produce more lateral g's then I would ever dare generate with the family in the car... lest my other half show her disapproval. We learned we were sharing the SUV with 3 Romanians and our Arab-garbed driver.

After a 20 or so minute drive we stopped at a gathering point. We took some initial sand pictures while ours and the 12 to 15 other Land Cruisers in our forming caravan had their tire pressures lowered in preparation for the sand hopping to come (here in the UAE it's called "dune bashing," perhaps it is called that everywhere.) Aww Yeah!

After a brief pause we were on our way. Here is how the dune bashing went: wicked engine revving, up, down, "AWWW!" and "WOW!" from the passengers, sideways, sand flying, wicked engine revving (heretofore "WER",) left tilt, WER, down down "EWWWW!" from the passengers, sand flying, WER, up up up, WER, roll right, "WOWEE" from the passengers... and on and on for a solid 45 minutes. Did I mention wicked engine revving? Certainly Michelle nor I had ever seen a vehicle driven even close to that hard over any sort of terrain. Then again, sand is a pretty unique substance, that apparently is some neat stuff to go off-roading on.

I was in the rear row of seats with Anna who was strapped in firmly with car seat and seatbelt, but she insisted for me to hold on to her. At first she said she was scared. As the ride went on, I kept telling her we were completely safe and she came to terms with it ok. I don't think it is for everyone. My final comment on dune bashing - WOW! and WER!

We then proceeded to drive for 10 minutes to the tour company's "camp" where we stopped to visit some camels and their wrangler. We all thought the baby camels were cute. They were surprisingly friendly.

Afterwards we entered the "camp." The whole thing was rather commercial, with a souvenir shop, cash bar, etc. The food was quite good, for the adults. Anna couldn't find anything to like, being quite the picky eater. Dinner was followed by a belly dancer. She was entertaining but not convincing as an "Arab." Before we knew it a few hours had gone by and the program came to an end.

One of the neater parts of the whole trip was on our way out of the desert. As our driver was crossing some of the last dunes between camp and the road, he turned the headlights off and gave us a few minutes of blacked-out dune bashing insanity.

We were dropped off at our place around 10 P.M. I don't think Michelle or Anna have much interest in doing it again, but I am definitely in for a next time! Anyone else?

BN