Desert Safari!

Alright, so a little bit later than promised, but things got a bit hectic yesterday, and I didn't get around to posting. Well, I admit, I did sleep in until....a despicable hour, and then went to the gym, and then went to church and by the time we did that and got a few groceries on the way home, well it was too late to be fiddling with my blog. But as promised, details of the desert safari. 

Friday afternoon we were picked up outside our building by our driver, and the rest of our group and headed off for our first desert adventure. It doesn't take long to get out into the desert from here, and before long we were seeing beautiful landscapes such as the following:

I had not anticipated how breathtakingly beautiful the desert would be. Even here, where it is so obviously inhabited, and you can see power lines, and empty bottles etc. 

We were very lucky with the weather - it was hot, around 40 degrees I think, but not humid, so quite bearable, and we were able to stand around and take photos and lap up the scenery. It was quite windy, so of course within 5 minutes we were covered in a fine sand that sticks all over your face and clogs up your hair. But after all, we wanted a real desert experience, and this was it. 

Part of the fun of the safari, and no doubt for some, the best part, is hooning around in 4-wheel drives across the sand dunes. I was a bit worried about hitting my head and getting sick, especially as AL and I were sitting in the back, but it was actually very comfortable, and a lot of fun! The worst thing about the experience is that there are so many others out there as well. You definitely do not get a sense of the peace and space of the desert, as there are any number of 4-wheel drives out there doing the same thing.  Still it is worth doing, and being able to watch the other cars gives you an idea of what you have been doing yourself. This photo shows some of the sand dune action. It was taken from the car window, so there is a bit of reflection from the glass.  

Another activity you can try on the safari is sand boarding! This is AL on his second attempt down the slope! He did pretty well. The kids in the group of course are always the best at these activities. Some of the adults barely made it over the edge of the slope, and ended up sliding down on their backsides! No doubt with trousers full of sand for the rest of the outing!

Our driver next took us to have a look at some camels. This is what I was looking forward to. The are the funniest animals - don't seem to care about anything going on around them, and not happy at all to do anything for their handlers. They look so exotic to me, and it is breathtaking to see them walking about loose in the desert. These "little" guys were quite playful while we were watching them - I do not know how they get so twisted up - all legs:

We were then driven to a camp where we took a short camel ride (just round in a very small circle - still one girl managed to fall off, and no, it wasn't me!) tried on the local costume, browsed some souvenirs and had a delicious BBQ dinner, followed by entertainment by a belly dancer. 

There are more photos of our desert safari to be viewd by taking a peek at my pictures, on the right hand side of this blog! I hope you enjoy them.