Dune bashing, Camel Rides, Falconry, Sandboarding & Belly dancing!

This week, Brak came to visit Dubai! We decided to go dune bashing. What is dune bashing? It is a type of off-roading in the sand dunes and is a common day trip in the Middle East to explore the desert! We were in one of the 20 cars that were going dune bashing together. Before we set off, all the drivers had to let about 40% of the air out of their tires. This would give the tires more traction in the desert. Once all the cars got in the desert it was like a roller coaster on the sand. Half the time i felt like we were going to flip over and we would slide almost vertical down the side of the sand dunes. We drove up and down dunes while we screamed for dear life and our driver Alwyn would laugh with amusement. He has been dune bashing for 17 years! Unfortunately, we DID see the car in front of us totally tumble over down a sand dune and we all had to do an emergency stop while the team rescued the passengers inside. Luckily, all the SUV's are equipped with a roll cage so that the top doesn't crush in should the car turn over. In this case, that roll cage really came in handy! The poor people inside were definitely shaken up....but everyone was ok in the end and we headed off to camp. The people in the turned over car were real troopers and still had a good rest of the day considering their car was a crumpled piece of metal.

We visited a camel farm and saw some locals teaching falcons how to hunt. At camp we had a huge buffet BBQ. Then, you could climb up the dune and give sandboarding a try - i managed to stay on the board the whole time. Sandboarding was super fun. The night ended with a full moon and the belly dancer dragged me out in the center to balance a pole between us. I was a good sport and publicly belly- danced! It was a great day in the desert, I would highly recommend Orient tours! Alwyn got us safely home without any overturns in the desert at night. phew.