From Dune Bashing to Camel Rides: An Unforgettable Desert Adventure...

You know how it goes, my wife wanted to go to Dubai, I wanted to go to Thailand, each of us gave up a little bit and we ended up in Dubai 😉. And I don't regret it! Dubai is a city that really has it all, tall skyscrapers, sandy beaches, glamorous hotels, shopping malls and on and on. But one experience that you simply cannot miss while visiting Dubai is a desert safari, where you immerse yourself in the stunning beauty of the Arabian desert. From thrilling dune drives to traditional camel rides and cultural shows. An adventure to last a lifetime!

It all started with a pick up from our hotel. A 4x4 vehicle and driver picked us up, and already the first impression with the driver was unusual. He was very silent, looking serious and not willing to have a conversation. We entered a car and on the first seat there was already a person seating (later we found out that was a tourist like we were). We took the middle row, while immediately after us another young couple joined us and went to the back seat. The 4x4 was large enough to accommodate 7 persons plus the driver, but as my wife immediately commented the last row of the seats were not that comfortable, so we were somehow lucky to be seated in the front seats.

We took the highway, slowly left the tall buildings behind us and turned towards the desert. The driver just said that he is our guide, that we will be driving 20 minutes to reach the first stop. We didn’t know what it was, and only later we realised that we reached the meeting point where other vehicle will join us to go together on the dunes.

When we stopped, the guide just said that the one of the persons with us is taking the quad bike ride and we have to wait until he is done. The quad bike was one of the options, that we didn’t take and I don’t regret it. It was not what I’ve imagined. Basically, it was a very plain terrain of the desert, that was surrounded by a fence and all persons that were taking the quad were driving chaotically all around. My wife immediately said: “Ok, I knew that is not for me”, but I thought that my son would insist on it. But not, he said that it doesn’t look funny or interesting,…

The stop was good to go to rest rooms, and we bought a gutra for our soon. A Gutra is an integral part of traditional clothing for Emirati men. It is a square piece of scarf, that they put on their head to protect them from the heat and sun, but also from the dust.

When it was time to depart, a member from our car was missing. He went for some shopping and come back to the car with delay. Our guide was getting very nervous, what resulted also in very furious drive after on, to catch the other members of the “caravan”.

We turned from the main road on the sand, with the same velocity and the car was bumping a lot. We thought that the bushings started, but the guide “politely reminded us” that wasn’t it…and at that point my wife started to be very nervous. She is working in tourism for almost 20 years and she has “her own standards” when we talk about service and working with people. I’ve tried to change the atmosphere whit a small joke, but again bounced the wall of our “nice guide”. We all agreed that is better to not say anything else and try to ignore him as much as possible.

But let’s go back to dune bashing. What it is? Basically, it is a form of off-roading done on sand dunes, usually in big 4X4 vehicles like the Toyota Land Cruiser or similar. The driver is varying in speed and manoeuvring the car to maintain balance while going up and down the dunes.

We drove to the starting point where they let us go out of the car to enjoy the magic scenario of the desert. We all agree that was mesmerizing. The changing dunes, the intense yellow-orange-almost red colour of the sand…wow!

There was a quite strong wind so we had the sand everywhere 😊. I was taking some nice photos of the dunes. My wife, she was admiring the views and trying to make the prefect selfie (but without luck, since the wind was ruffling her hair 😊)... and our son….believe it or not he manged to bury himself in the sand.

While we were enjoying the desert, the drivers let the air out of the tires on the cars. It was time to board the car again and start the sand bushing. And waw, it was really a great ride! We were going up and down, we slid down the slope, swung to the top of the dune, and then plummeted down. Countless times we slid sideways on the dune, sand splashed over the roof of the car. We had fun, we screamed a little, we cheered and caught our breath few times…. but then I realised that the lady seating on the back seat got sick. The driver gave her a plastic bag but of course it was not funny for her anymore but we also felt very bed for her. The car stopped and my wife jump out very quickly. It was not only to help the lady, but as she said later, she was also feeling quite sick.

In fact we all thought that the ride would be shorter, but it was quite long, and my wife admitted that she was also “on the edge” to got sick. My son, he was enjoying the ride and almost haven’t noticed “the drama” that was going on in the car.

After a short stop we continued with the ride, but the lady was still not feeling better, and we slowly made it to the point where we could try the sandboarding. We had a plan - my wife was selected to be “the video maker” while my son and I will try to do the sandboarding. My son went first, he seated on the board and make a nice ride on the dunes before ending in the sand.

Then it was my turn. The start was good, then I gained speed and …and …well I don’t know what happened, I think I made a double forward roll…I just know that I was all covered with sand. I had the fine red sand all over my nose, ears, mouth, hair….no comment really. My wife – “the official movie maker” – forgot to press record key, so my jump was filmed only on my son’s phone, who manged to take a short shot while on the top of the dune. Take a look at below photo, the green spot on left bottom corner is not a bush 😊.

Back to the car, the poor lady was still not feeling well, so the dune bashing was done for us. But honestly, the tree of us we had it enough too. The guide drove to a nearby spot to get the air back to the tiers, and we continued to the desert camp. But I don’t know why, he suddenly decided to make a small detour and we got stuck on a dune. We were not able to go back or forward and we had to wait for another car to pull us out of the sand. I think that we made the last part of the drive to the camp in silence.

At the camp we took a short camel ride, an experience for our son, but it can’t be compared to other camel rides that we saw and done in other parts of the word, where we were really going on a ride through the desert. Here was a hundred meters long walk, and that was it.

They also advertised a sunset in the desert, well that was not what we expected or imagined. The view of the sunset was over a transmission line.

Dinner was as expected, simple but tasty. We were served BBQ food, a salad, and local bread that had been baked when we arrived.

After dinner, there was a cultural show, a presentation of local dances, performed in their local costumes.

I hope I have encouraged you to make a trip to the desert today, I think it is a must, especially if you do not live near a desert. But I am sure my wife would definitely choose a different guide next time!