King of the desert

Stunning. That's probably the best word to describe the desert. The slightly reddish, incredibly fine and soft sand, harmonious ripples drawn in a perfect pattern by the scalding winds of the desert, scattered patches of scarce plant life, the gentle dunes, the hazy horizon and the perfect blue sky above it all really are amazing.

IF you can get back into an air-conditioned 4wd vehicle anytime you want, that is. Because even now, in early spring, the sun burns down relentlessly (the skin on my arm is still peeling), the sand gets too hot to bear without closed shoes around midday, and after a few moments outside, you have sand anywhere - in your clothes, hair, ears, mouth. Good the camera did not conk out.

So it's little surprise that local people mostly only drive into the desert for some dune-bashing - which means you drive your car at high speeds up and down and around the sand dunes, avoiding the soft spots you might easily get stuck in and jumping over dune tips, including stomach-churning dips down into surprisingly deep valleys of sand. Dune-bashing is quite a popular pastime around here, I'm told - and something I also did last weekend as part of a desert trip.

A group of about twenty people in four cars left Dubai in the early morning to head to the Southwest (I think), passing the huge Chinese Dragon market, the far-out International Village, some gas stations and branches of banks in the middle of nowhere, as well as the only Dubai inland oil field (which you can't visit, I learned with some regret). And after letting out some air from the tires for better traction, we hit the desert at top speeds. While I took the dune-bashing mostly fine, two women quickly engaged in a screaming match which the one from Canada only won because the French girl had to jump out of the car and look very closely at the sand's intricate patterns. Several times. I felt sorry for her, because she clearly felt bad that the whole car had to stop just because of her - which didn't bother me at all, I used the stops for walking around and just sit or lie in the sand, or jumping down the sides of dunes, all the while avoiding the occasional "camel chocolate" (yes, it is what you think) on the ground.

During one stop at a camel farm (see picture) I got really close to these strange animals - and was surprised to feel how horrent and scrubby their fur is. But I didn't stay too long touching them, as I eyed their huge yellow teeth with some suspicion and felt better watching the camels from a few meters away. We later had lunch in the shadow of a huge rock, during which I managed not to spill any food over myself even though there was an abundance of red salad sauce and other highly spillable stuff. After a short drive into a mountainous area, I didn't regret to get back on normal streets again, as the dune-bashing is fun for maybe an hour but then gets somewhat repetitive, especially as the driver slowed down remarkably out of consideration for the Canadian-French Scream Team.

Nonetheless, the day was great - to see and to be in the desert is a unique experience nobody should miss out.