One of the main activities available in Dubai is dune bashing – hopping in a 4×4 and heading out to the desert to churn it up at high speed. We had been looking forward to it and booked with Knight Tours from the Ibis Hotel. We were the first people picked up in our car and quickly drove to another hotel where we picked up four really friendly Indian guys from Kerala who had been working in Dubai hospitality for a few months.
With everyone on board we sped out of the city and towards the desert. It was quite a long drive and we were glad to pull of the road and onto the sand. Unfortunately we then had to wait for all of the other tour cars to turn up as we were the very first. With 10 cars to wait for it was a looooong, dull half hour before we were told to head back to the cars.
The actual dune bashing itself was great fun – riding the crest of a dune before suddenly turning and dashing down the face of it – amazing what the cars could do. We were in the lead car which added the element of surprise and beautiful view of the desert ahead.
After maybe just 15 minutes we all pulled up together again and were left to wander the desert and take pictures. We noticed that a few of the drivers gathered in one car and actually sped off to enjoy some racing by themselves while we all stood around for half an hour. Once back in the cars we drove straight to the ‘bedouin’ camp (don’t expect any more bashing) where we hopped on a poor old camel for a short ride before hanging around the large tent area for a considerable amount of time. The number of guests greatly outweighed the facilities available – with just one henna tattoo artist the queue was getting quite grumpy at times.
The food was very good though, and the belly dancing was quite funny – with all of our comrades from Kerala joining in and obviously having a good time.
Overall it was a worthwhile experience, but there must be better providers out there – I would avoid Knight Tours as it is just too big. Too much hanging around and not enough actual dune bashing!
