A Day in The Desert

Before I move away from the luxurious disconnect of the hotel, I thought I would indulge in some tourism of the land I will call home for at least the next two years.
A group of teachers found a wonderful tourism group that takes you out on a desert safari. We were picked up from our hotel, placed in big, white SUVs (the national car here, I think), and driven deep into the desert.

First, we stopped at a Gazelle farm, where the leader of the UAE raises the animals (we just saw them through the fence), they seemed so tiny and fragile.

Then we began the exciting sport of DUNE BASHING! It's off-roading, basically, but where you climb dunes up to 200m tall (our guide told us that they were small compared to elsewhere) and the driver takes you up and down, side to side as if you were on a rollercoaster. The desert scenery makes it even more lovely and when you look at how small you are in comparison to the sand dunes, it's humbling.

We stopped at a camel farm, where the Bedouin farmer allowed me to snap his picture.

We continued our rollercoaster ride for another half hour until we got to our desert camp. It was lovely, inside there were tents, blankets and pillows for us to lounge on, and outside, there were camel rides, ATVs, and sand surfing (it is totally a thing, and fun!)

We had a delicious authentic dinner, with lamb, grilled chicken, lentil curry, hummus and bread. Once we had eaten our fill, we had arabic coffee and smoked sheesha.

It was a magical day in the desert, and an experience not to be forgotten.