Friday 17 April

We set alarm for 10am but wake at 8 ie 2-1/2 hours sleep. Ravenous! Tina organises laundry. Magnificent breakfast. Great service in this hotel. Brave the blast of heat and go for a boat trip on the Creek. Great contrast of old and new - modern buildings with old trading dhow. Lovely, cool breeze on the water and I am greatful that my excellent new travel hat bought by Kirsten and Isaac has a clip which attaches to my shirt collar.

Excellent lunch in Twin Towers (oh, the irony) featuring the music of John Denver! Tina had a magnificent plate of fresh fruit - including the best kiwi fruit that we can't get at home as it is exported.

We rest until 4pm then we go on our Desert Safari. Already we see the wisdom of grabbing this room as otherwise we would have had to check out and no rest. Our young driver is Bangladeshi (the porter in the night was Indian - 13 years in Dubai) who has been here 3 years. In our Toyota 4wd suv are 2 Japanese young women.

A 40 minute drive north-east from Dubail to a petrol station for the 15 car convoy rezendevous. Impressions on this drive:
- 120kph for cars/80kph for trucks
- 7-8 lanes going one way! Later "narrows" to 6 lanes - 4 for cars, 2 for trucks
- sand blowing across road, hazy sky
- a totally man- made environment (literally!) - scrap away the thin layer that people have made and all you see is sand
- huge electricity pylons and masses of them everywhere
- a bus park with thousands of spare buses
- convoys of trucks carrying Dubai's waste water

The young driver has his radio set loudly to Virgin Radio.

The convoy heads further out into the desert, pulls off the road and stops on the sand. Every tyre has its pressure reduced by half for traction on the sand (from 30pps to 15).

Now the fun begins - dune bashing. The driver races up dunes, drops down the steep side; slides down dunes; whips sand over the windscreen in a slide. This is done in short bursts and then convoy regathers to check all vehicles are ok. Our 2 Japanese girls are screaming! I, of course, get car sick so leave a little bit of myself in the desert (to be honest, what I left was Dubai's breakfast and lunch). This forces the driver to go slow. He loves being number 2 in the convoy but now we are like a lame duck left behind as he takes the easiest route.

We stop at a camel farm and then on to the safari campsite.

[Aside, it is 2 days later and huge frustration in trying to update using Turkish keyboards and internet cafes where there are language difficulties. Back to the story]

The camel farm is in the desert. All food and water is imported. It's just a bare patch of land with a high fence.

The camp site is very impressive. A semi-circle of huts for guests and the other half of the circle is buildings for activities.

The first thing Tina does is a camel ride. I refrain due to stomach unease - it is already rolling. Tina hangs on gamely and lurches along. Photos will be published plus we have the dvd!

There is sandboarding, holding a falcon and heena painting which we don't do. But we do the following:
- dressing up in traditional costume
- smoking the bubble pipe (sheesha) - nice taste!
- an excellent meal
- very good belly dancer

It's 8.30pm and over 60 people leave. There are only 4 guests and our driver left; Tina and I and the 2 Japanese. We never knew that there were two options.

A nylon, 2 person tent is set up inside a hut for us (and one for the Japanese). A wafer thin mattress is put in tent, along with a sleeping bag (hot, hot, hot!) and a rock hard cushion that we sat on during the meal is the pillow.

Problems:
1. It is stifling hot in tent with the sleeping bag
2. It is rock hard concrete under the thin mattress
3. The pillow is a neck breaker
4. Little high pitched flying insects

We immediately pull the tent out into the open sand where it is cooler. Lights out at 9pm!

Little sleep. So uncomfortable.

At 1 in the morning we drag the mattresses out and sleep under the stars; Tina using a jersey as a pillow and I use my pack. It is cooler but the insects increase. Still uncomfortable and little sleep.

We wake around 5, climb a dune and enjoy the light increasing at the start of the day.

Breakfast was a hard boiled egg mashed up on slightly stale bread (ie an egg sandwich) and a cup of tea.

Conclusion - do the desert safari but don't do the overnight. And yet with a few simple changes it could have been lovely.

Then we were off. Our lovely driver (who says he found the night hot and who slept in his suv with air con on!!!) asks if we want to go to Camel Rock. Mistakenly we all say "yes". Mistake. More dune bashing (although gentler than yesterday). I had to get him to stop. Didn't chunder but it was close.

We are back at the hotel at 8am and here, once again, Tina's decision to hold our room pays off as we have a shower, eat a proper breakfast, Tina organises laundry and we sleep.