Red dunes in the sunset

Catching up on lost sleep was the main aim of the morning. Readers of this tome may have realised by now that the agenda has been full, the pace frantic, the experiences wide ranging, the senses assaulted and eventually the brain gets overloaded. If it wasn't for this diary most of it would be quickly washed away in the stream of life's cancophony. As it is is we took the opportunity of not having anything planned for a few hours, nicely stranded inside an air-conditioned cell where outside the oppressive heat taxes fortitudinal strength at an extraordinary rate. That's a long way of saying we slept for 14 hours. Missing our free breakfast even. Milking it for all its worth we even called room service for a brunch at 1:00pm and were more than happy with the cost, quality, quantity and timing. After all - we now had plans. Things to do. Places to go. People to meet. Therefore at 3:00 pm we were in the foyer wondering if our ride arranged by others would eventuate. It did. Bang on time a dude walked in and started asking people questions. A quick look at his phone revealed the non-bloggers name and our connection was made and we were off. Next adventure starts here: - The drive out of the provence took over an hour. We went past yesterday's mall in the middle of nowhere and kept going. Ever so slowly the landscape changed ever so slightly. From the grey coloured sandy barren drab ground dotted with boring buildings of varying heights, purposes and thus captivatingness to a more natural desert type feel as camel farms (big ones with fences and dunes with trees nibbled to a uniform Hight) became prominent. Slowly also the colour of the sand was changing into a red base which certainly helps the ambience as does the pollution based mist disappearing - so we could start to see hills in the distance.

We hung around for a while at a tourist depot where people get to jaunt around the red dunes on ATV's. Having done this in Moonambel it didn't resonate with us so we kept the wallet in the pocket. There was also the desire to travel home in a seat on the plane as compared to in the cargo hold. Then our hosts turned up and after having some interesting head dress fun we hopped into our vehicles and we went dune bashing. Big time.

The dunes are extensive and we could see many trains of land cruisers in the distance as well as ours closer up all doing the similar manouvers. Sliding sideways spraying plumes of red sand over the jalopy was a favourite action. There is no cause to be concerned about errosion as the winds quickly adjust for the next day to make it all pristine for the next attack. And so we lept, slided, reved, braked, gunned, swerved, sluced, lept, carresed, ploughed, dug our way through the red dunes of the dessert of the UAE. Eventually we pulled up for a photo shoot where we all jostled for a pose in front of the setting sun before heading off for the next installment.

Like a modern day caravan of nomads we snaked our way amougnst the dunes, passing numerous neon lit camps cleverly hidden in the gullies which made us think we were heading into an uninhabited area which was actually quite the opposite. The illusion was complete though, upon arrival at our oasis we were given the opportunity to ride a camel (for about 10 metres) which was great. The up and down was the best bit (had to hang on !) And then we went inside the camp for the evening's entertainment. The stars in the sky here move quickly as they are aircraft - nothing else penetrates the persistent haze. One can see why a supernova burning 2000 years ago would have inspired 3 camel riders to journey eastwards to eventually stumble across a crib in a barn. It would've been the only thing visible in these parts. The world may worked out differently if they had've said WTF, shrugged their shoulders and gone back to their flocks. No one else in the crowd was looking at the sky in the camp because the entertainment was full on. We all sat around the stage and had three shows of local ethnic origin. The first guy up was a great dancer who used the ancient aribic art of led lights sown into costumes to fabulous effect. It's interesting to note that the use of this technology has just taken off recently in the western world. Swirling to the rythmic sounds of (admittedly pre recorded and amplified) nomadic arabian music he kept us all transfixed as he swirled and twirled, slowly losing garments much to the girls delight. He really won them over when he converted one into a pseudo baby (effect accentuated by accompanying soundtrack).

The food was great. The dress up in the local garb was hilarious - hopefully not too disrespectful. Surrounding the central stage was a range a stalls providing a variety of items for consumption or purchase. Mostly free though. Shisha was an experience worth while doing - accentuated by hearing the camels snorting outside just behind us. We didn't purchase any but hats off to the guys doing coloured sand art in bottles. This was really clever stuff. The other dancers were also very entertaining. The belly dancer was extremely sensuous (whilst not crossing any boundaries of course) and had a lot of fun in engaging the kids in the crowd and the fire dancer was lucky not to envelope himself in a conflagration of flames. We had dinner late due to dress ups and subsequently were the last to leave the camp. Our hosts were fabulous and the whole experience raised our enthusiasm for the country and we now realise there is a heap more to the place. The drive home started out with dune bashing in the dark, a quick stop to pump up tyres properly and then onto the brightly lit highways. 9:00 pm and workers are on the side of the road doing manual landscaping. The construction here goes on and on. Getting back to our room we popped upstairs to check out the views. Nup. Our concrete wall is as good as the car park or the high rises across the road. Maybe the pool will be enticing in the daylight.