Desert Safari

 

A Desert Safari is a great way to experience the miles of sand and the vastness of the desert. The Schrocks had the time of their life -- dune bashing!! A day in the desert can be exciting and nauseating!

First there was the camel riding. Camels are loud and smelly but a thrilling experience anyway! Ingrid was especially pleased to be able to do this "finally" -- because she has always wanted to!

Dune bashing means driving up and down the sand dunes. We were in a convoy of several 4WD LandCruisers driven by talented Qataris. Dune bashing is a very local activity. The young Qataris travel to the desert on Fridays to get their thrills. On a busy weekend there can be 3000-4000 vehicles riding the dunes.

Being in the front can be a little scary because you are the first to drop down 30 metres of shifting sand. But being in the back is also scary because you can see the other vehicles drop out of sight and have more time to worry about what is coming. People are injured while dune bashing if the driver is not experienced or the passengers are not wearing seatbelts.

This may not look like much. Sliding sideways down a dune feeling like you might roll over at any second. Waves of sand blocking the view from the windows. Imagine Paula and Lisa inside screaming at the top of their lungs.

We traveled to the edge of the desert where the sand meets the Gulf. Looking across the water is the desert of Saudi Arabia. The Gulf extends into the desert in a long finger called the Inland Sea. There are only two places on earth where this happens.

The kids let off some steam in the Gulf: looking for shells, running on the beach, examining pieces of dead coral, enjoying the coolness of the water and sand as the sun set.

We finished the day with a BBQ of lamb and chicken eating in majlis tents.