I have always associated a safari with an expedition largely to spot wild animals. Little did I know what a desert safari would entail before I signed up for it during my recent visit to Dubai, the glamour city of United Arab Emirates.
Desert safari in Dubai is a must-do on their tourists map. Naturally, curiosity got the better of me and there I was embarking my octogenarian self on to feel the novel experience armed with my camera. About 12 tourists, including myself, in two vans, started our journey one bright morning. Our drivers were British, one man and the other a woman, again a novelty for me.
Speeding over sand, we first reached a camel farm. The sight of the animals in the endless span of golden sand with a blue sky hovering over them was exhilarating. We spent some time watching the camels and talked to their minders about how they were looked after in the middle of nowhere.
As we proceeded further, we began to bump into sand dunes. Thereafter, it was a rollercoaster drive through the 60 km expanse of the desert. In between, at one place, we went up a high dune and while coming down faced another high one in front, the result being, the van got stuck in layers of sand. We all got down not knowing what to do. Being stuck in the middle of a desert was definitely not the greatest of feeling. The experienced drivers came to our rescue and after 20 minutes of vigorously shovelling the sand and using implements, we were back on track. Once we reached the end of the desert, the rocky terrain began. We did not tread too far on the rocks though. A few kilometres later we settled down under the sun for lunch and little rest. The surroundings were quite interesting with different types of rocks in varied hues, a huddle of date palms shooting out of the rocky terrain, a row of rugged mountains and winds creating ripples on the sandy expanse. Being an amateur photographer, I took the opportunity to can all of them in my camera. On our return journey we cut short through the desert and took another route to reach our destination in the city. On the whole, it was quite a different experience for me to have seen another face of nature with all its rugged beauty.
