A visit to Dubai didn’t feel complete without a trip into the desert. After the skydiving competition completed, I took the opportunity for a morning trip out of the city on the desert highway until Maghrab where we entered the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. Having entered the reserve, our driver stopped to let down the tires of the Land Cruiser and we set off into the sand.
The dune drive can follow tracks of others, if they remain, the drivers have been given a set area in which they are permitted to drive up and down the steep dunes. Using a GPS locator the driver could ensure he was always within this area as well as finding his way back out again for us to meet our camels. We were introduced to Rocky and Sheila and promptly invited to mount them. After my last experience of riding a camel in Rajasthan, I was pleasantly surprised by the comfort of the saddle.
Having taken the camels to a small oasis, we feasted on Arabic coffee, made with cardamom and breakfast of pancakes, vermicelli noodles cooked with cardamom and scrambled egg and chickpeas. Arabs believe that you should breakfast on soft items so as not to over burden your body. That will be my justification for leaving cornflakes to soak from now on…
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