It's Gripped

posted by Jaitu at 18:02

As I mentioned before I very recently spent a week on holiday in Dubai. While we were there we went on a Desert Safari. We were picked up from our hotel by a very friendly guy, named Yussef, driving a V8 Toyota Land Cruiser. After collecting another family he took us out of the city and towards the desert. We took a brief rest stop at a petrol station along with roughly thirty similar vehicles from other tour groups. In the words of Yussef this was the "last toilet for two maybe three hour."
On the road again we joined a small convoy of tour vehicles. One thing you come to learn quickly in Dubai is that things tend to have a transient nature. It soon became clear that the road we were on was closed for some construction work. It didn't however become clear until we were already a mile or so beyond the last opportunity to have altered our route. No problem, just drive off the edge of the tarmac and across desert scrub until you join the other road. We eventually merged with a dual carriageway, which headed to the horizon, and set off along it. Where the surrounding sand had encroached across our two-lane blacktop Yussef simply skipped us across the central divide and took the oncoming lanes. Fortunately there wasn't a lot of traffic.

Eventually we spotted the rest of the group belonging to the company we were with and left the road once more to join them for a quick photo opportunity on top of some dunes while the drives reduced the air pressure in their tyres.

Then we were back in the Land Cruisers and off. One by one we rolled into and around the side of a large natural bowl of sand. Then we were not off. One of the other drivers had been a bit eager and scrubbed the right rear tyre off it's rim. All the other drivers got out to help and within five minutes everything was right again. Then we were off again. Snaking across the desert we played follow the leader at impressive speeds climbing, cresting and drifting through enormous dunes.


We drove around for about an hour having incredible fun with only two brief pauses. Once to free a Land Cruiser that had become hung up at right angles across the top of a dune and once to cross paths with a gang of camels.

At the end of the hour we all came to a halt near a cool box left seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Everyone was given chilled water and we climbed the nearest dune to watch the sunset.

Then off through the dusk to a permanent desert camp for an enormous Lebanese buffet and some belly dancing. All in all we were out and entertained for around seven hours and all for only forty quid each. I would highly recommend anyone staying in Dubai takes the opportunity to try this out.

Progress?

posted by Jaitu at 21:11

A few things have happened in recent weeks. No doubt a few more things will happen in the coming weeks. In an effort to, once again, force a dangerously weak crutch under the blog to give only the most superficial appearance of some activity, I'll mention some of them now and maybe (read: never) return to them later.

Work finally began on our conservatory. Long-story-short...
We paid the deposit last August.
Everything that could delay us did delay us.
Building standard/regulations oversights were identified.
Plans were re-drawn and the glazing to brick work ratio was increased.
Construction began in the latter half of April.
We hit an unexpected sewer cover.
There was a trivial boundary dispute which has transformed a formerly ambivalent neighbourly relationship into a slightly uncomfortable acceptance of proximity.
Work stopped.
Plans were re-drawn and the conservatory was reduced in size.
Work has now begun again.

Friends of ours were married a week and a half ago. The awful weather forecast for the big day proved to be inaccurate and the sun stayed resolutely bright and visible until everything had moved inside for the evening. I was asked to take some photos during the day from which I hope the happy couple find something to like. I'm not so pleased with them but it's the first, and probably last, wedding I've taken any photos at. I enjoy taking pictures but the responsibility is not something I relish.

The Groom, no longer able to contain the emotion of the day, unleashes latent super-powers on the dance floor.

My wife and I have just come back from a week in Dubai. It was hot, relaxed and fantastic. We'd both like to return and maybe we will in a few years time. I shot some shaky footage on my point-and-shoot digital still camera while on a Desert Safari and will try to get some of that available on the blog later along with some snaps and more information about the trip.

A photo that completely fails to convey the size of the dunes we were tearing through.

My Mother-In-Law has booked her ticket and will be staying with us for a month over the summer. This will be the first time one of the in-laws has been to England and my Wife is almost uncontrollably excited by the prospect. It does, of course, mean that we really have to get our spare room cleared and made good as a guest bedroom before AussieMum arrives in July.

So, I may return with more on some of these things. I may also not.