Dune Bashing and Desert Safari

Me & Jared -- Desert self-take.

Toward the end of Harry and Linda's visit, we had planned a Dune Bashing/Desert Safari afternoon so they could get a complete picture of the region (urban in Dubai, coast in Musandam, and no trip to the UAE would be complete with getting out and seeing the desert). We booked a tour with Desert Rangers, the same company we had used when Jared and I went on our first desert safari in November 2007 (the first time I visited), and we definitely were not disappointed.

For the uninformed, a desert safari is basically an off-road adventure through the desert in a 4-wheel drive vehicle from which some of the air has been released from the tires (think driving on Duxbury Beach x 1000). We got picked up by our guide Abbas in a Toyota Land Cruiser (we were only slightly nervous to be driving through sand dunes in a Toyota) at about 3:30pm. We picked up another couple from a nearby hotel and headed out into the desert.

We stopped at a roadside plaza to let out the air and rendezvous with the other vehicles (5-10 other Land Cruisers were a part of our group and we all met up before caravanning through the desert). After about 20 minutes of hydrating and giving the tourists in the other vehicles time to buy souvenirs (we obviously don't ever consider ourselves tourists. In fact, Jared gets angry if his name is ever put into the same sentence as anything referring to tourism), we headed off-road and into the desert.

We spent the next couple hours bombing through the dunes in what feels like a roller coaster ride on sand. Extremely fun and bouncy, although probably not for those with heart conditions. Often times it feels like you're going to flip when you are flying nose-first down a 45 degree incline, but the presence of multiple roll-bars in the vehicle makes you feel slightly safer.

Periodically we'd stop along the way in a particularly pretty stretch of desert for pictures and to pop the hoods on the Land Cruisers to let them cool down. We took advantage of the photo op and took a group photo.

Jared's desert modeling shot.

Jared and his Dad. Family resemblance in appearance and fashion.

The beautiful desert. Unfortunately, too often here people really treat the environment with complete and utter disregard, thinking nothing of littering and leaving the remnants of an entire picnic meal in the desert or beach. It disgusts me and I actually had a hard time getting a good desert shot that didn't have cans and garbage in it. And if destroying the natural beauty of a place isn't enough, it also kills the camels who will come across garbage (plastic bags and such) in the desert, eat them, and subsequently die when a plastic bag becomes lodged in their stomachs. Quite distressing me to. Maybe I'll start an "adopt a square kilometer of desert" program similar to adopt a highway in the US.... hmm...