Desert Safari

I FINALLY got to pet a camel! Gail, being the brilliant one, found a two-for-one deal on a desert safari, through Phoenix Tours. We got picked up at three, then had to make a couple stops to pick up the rest of our fellow dune bashers. We got totally lucky and met some great ladies from Houston that moved here a couple weeks to be school teachers. Our sixth was a very sweet young lady from Japan. Her English was spotty, but she was so friendly and tried her best to communicate.

After about an hour drive we went through a couple gates and onto the sand! Gail was commenting on the drive out that the guy drove a little slow. That all changed once he hit the sand! He punched it and ran it up to about 45 mph sliding all over the place. After a couple hundred yards he skidded to a stop and told us we could get out and get some pics. So we did. When I looked back toward the gate I noticed more Land Cruisers coming. In all there were six parked side-by-side. We stood around and talked and snapped pics while they let air out of the tires.

We all jumped back in and played the sickest game of follow the leader than you could ever imagine. I was fully prepared to be under-whelmed by the dunes, but they were magnificent! We were going up and down 60-70 foot dunes. As you can see in the pics, we came down sideways a few times. After a bit of this we stopped at the camel farm. They are so cool! They came over to us to suck up some attention and get their neck scratched. They're like big puppy dogs, if dogs had lips. We threaded our way through the land mines and got some great pics. There was a few city folks that commented that they smelled bad. I kinda liked the smell. Reminded me of the fair.

We said goodbye to the camels and hit the dunes again. Poor Bernadette was not enjoying it. She was like a southern baptist preacher. Lord, Jesus, Father, help me Lord, oh Jesus, let me out! There were times I was sure we were going to roll, but our driver has probably been doing this since he was 12.

After a short drive we arrived at the compound in the desert. Nothing fancy, but it was very cool. We were able to ride a camel and do some dune surfing. The heat was getting to some of the folks. Gail and I were thirsty, but good. As the sun started to set I climbed up to the top of a dune to get some pics. It is bizarre how tall the dunes are. When I got to the top, there was nothing but sand for as far as I could see. Very cool!

After sunset, we broke fast and had a simple, but tasty Iftar dinner. After dinner I took a little shisha and then they turned all the lights in the compound off. We just sat in the dark looking at the stars. Again, very cool. The trip ended abruptly when the lights came back on. It was like, thanks for coming, now leave!

It was a great experience that I will never forget. When Kayleigh and Rob are here, we hope to do an overnighter in the desert. That would be amazing to get up and do a sunrise walk in the desert.

That's all for now.....keep following!