The Sandpit - Desert safari

When Jess decided that she was going to come and stay with me in Dubai, she had 3 requirements. 1. Spend quality time with myself 2. Time in the sun 3. Camels.

The first two were easily enough done, but with the third requirement we had a couple of options. The thought had crossed my mind of telling her that you didn't need to be conservatively dressed in Al Ain and to take her to the camel markets. Tall, blonde and attractive, surely if I worked on my negotiation skills I could get 3 fine racing camels in exchange for her (my Aunty was offered 2 camels for myself when we had visited previously)? The other option was to do a desert safari. Since we are going to be living together in London and I might get lonely without her (plus I don't think I could get the camels cleared through customs), I thought it best to stick to the desert safari. 

We had been searching the coupon websites and finally one came up on Living Social that we were happy with, so Jess, myself, Gareth and Sam booked it. We ended up saving around 80% - so it's worth keeping an eye out for them if you are interested in doing one. 

The safari we went with also included a small tour of Dubai, so we went and took the token tourist shots outside Atlantis, Burj Al Arab and then to Deira and cruised across the creek on a boat. Now it was time for the real fun to get started. 

Gareth the tourist

Jess and I at the Atlantis - being tourist

The dancing guys at the safari camp

After what felt like forever we finally arrived in what looked like desert. We stopped at a shop, for no main reason, but to trap tourists in to buying overpriced souvenirs. Tourist like us. Jess and I went in to the bathrooms to get changed in to our jeans and walk out and the boys are getting ghurta's (head scarves) and igal's (black ties that go around the head scarves, that can also be used to tie camel's front legs together so that they can't run away from you). When the shop assistants realised that we were with the tourists they'd suckered in we were quickly fitted with white head scarves - something that I am pretty sure the women don't wear at all. Oh well, who doesn't love a bit of dress up here and there. 

Stupid tourists! WAIT! That's us... oops.

Sitting at the shop, we wondered if this was where the safari was about to begin and we were dune bashing next. There were a few worried looks as our group of 11 climbed back in to the minivan and started to head off road. There were a few close calls as we were driving on soft sand next to a concrete wall and the back end started to slide towards it, but all of a sudden we popped out on another motorway. Let's hope that wasn't our dune bashing experience. 

We pulled up off a side road and suddenly three 4wds appeared. Yes, this was more like it! The 4 of us plus another couple got called over to one 4wd and we all piled in. I am not sure if taking the very back seat with Sam was a wise move. They seemed to be the seats where if we hit a dune hard enough and got air, it was only our heads that banged the roof. And I was sitting next to the person who liked to bait the driver to be going harder, faster and higher. The main thing I was thinking was "where do I hold!" I didn't want to hold the roll cage in case we did roll and my hand got crushed (ridiculous thought, I know). It also didn't help that Sam seemed to get the giggles when he was nervous or scared. The dune bashing was an amazing experience and we were really disappointed when we pulled up to the camp we were spending the next few hours at. 

One of the other 4wd's in our group - we were the cooler more adventurous in our car though

Backseat bandits - prone to hitting our heads

The camp setup is where all of the different tours meet up. The boys had expressed an interest in hiring quad bikes (at extra cost) and taking them out on the dunes, but once we got there they were just little bikes to take around a track - they passed on that quickly. The set up was really good though. There were camel rides out by the quad bikes, with a never ending line, but we waited a couple of hours and rode the camels in the dark. Jess was happy, she got her camel fix. Inside the camp, there were chances to dress up in local dress, but the boys ended up buying their own dishdashas (and obviously already had the head wear). There were food stalls, chances to get henna, sheesha dens, and in our true form, we found a bar and managed to buy a bottle of vodka. There were a few local dance shows, and then a big BBQ with more dancing shows afterwards. 

Old mate wanted a photo with us and our head wear

Got schemed in to having a photo with the falcon

Our 4wd driver came and found us and told us it was time to return back to the 4wd and then on to the van. A bottle of vodka down, plus beers, we were a lot more game than earlier in the evening, and our driver sensed that. We were getting sideways all over the place, even flying past other 4wds that were going back to the vans. Dune bashing in the dark and half drunk is a whole lot more fun! 

Is it a sheikh? is it a ninja? Noo noo noo, it's just Sam and Garrreth in their new purchases. 

With Jess happy she got to pat and ride the stinky camel, it was back to Barasti to finish the night off. Another great day in the sandpit. 

Weird fact: Arab camels only have 1 hump. Doesn't make for a very interesting song of "Alice the Camel"

Jess and a camel. Requirement 3, check!