The Desert safari trip ?

What is the desert safari trip?

.....in Africa the safari is popular,, you see the great wild life... lions, tigers, hyenas, you name it.

In Dubai there isnt much wild life to see except the trained expensive eagles (touristic versions) and camels of course!

In the end of June 2005, i went on my first desert safari trip with two Hospitality Club members: Branka and Julia to a desert safari... was interesting to do, they pick you up from your hotel or home and drive south west on the highway to Al Ain for about 30 minutes, then from the highway will go offroad into the desert a few minutes your already on the desert dunes.. from there the standard trip will include the following:

1. Sand dune bashing, not easy to do and only done by professional drivers, baisically driving up and down on the sand dunes. There are a few breaks cause people will start to feel sick, the feeling is similar to being on a rollercoaster ride. The car used is a Toyota Landcruiser, powerful car and very spacious, easily you can fit 7 people in the car including the driver.
2. The Camp: After an hour or two of dune bashing, the driver will take you to the camp, and usually the camp is shared by several desert safari companies, so there will be 10 or 15 different cars means up to 60 or 70+ people will share the same camp. the camp will have camel rides, henna tattoo drawing, belly dancer show, arabic costumes you can use to take photos and the most important open buffet BBQ food.
3. Later after eating and having a few drinks, they take you back home.

The full program is usually 6 to 7 hours long, they pick you up after noon (1 or 2 pm) then they drop you off around 9 to 10 pm.

The price is usually depending on the company doing the trip and can be between AED 175 to 250 (EUR 38 to 55) for the whole trip including food and soft drinks. You can add the quad bike rides but its pretty expensive the one i did once was an added price of AED 100 per 30 min meaning its AED 200 for 1 hour. (EUR 20 for 30 min and EUR 40 for 1 hour). But it was really amazing fun!

Here are some photos of the first desert safari i did with Branka and Julia in end of June 2005



The Landcruisers doing the dune bashing!



Dont try this at home!

Branka and Julia enjoying the desert



Ashraf and Branka




Branka's great face expressions while the camel ride starts!


Branka's henna tattoo!



Belly Dancer doing her thing!


Branka and Julia decided to become nationals :)