Sunday, April 13, 2008

Dubai by Sand

Next! After stocking up, we head off to the desert. 70 kilometers out of the city, we're among mountains and endless sand dunes. Armed with a decent SUV (no Kias out here!), and a couple of quad bikes (also known as 4-wheelers), we went out to do some dune crashing.

Unfortunately, things can often get out of hand in Dubai. My quad biking skills aren't quite what they used to - er, ever were. I managed to roll the four wheeler onto myself UPHILL. Other than some pretty bad scrapes and burns on the leg trapped underneath, I make it out alive. Fortunately, Katie captured a bit of it on video (sorry mom - the rest can watch the carnage here!), and you can barely see me wiping out in the background before everybody scrambles to the rescue. And off to do some more dune bashing!

We helped out some fellow bashers who got stuck a few times, but our expert driver, Nick, managed to keep us merely covered in sand - not stuck in it. Using air conditioning sucks power from the engine, so the windows are down and the sand is always flying in.

We took a breather in a little desert oasis, then hoofed it back to the city for a birthday dinner for our friend Amer. Next up - a latin food feast.

PS - Yes, we really are wearing the hats!

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