Dune Bashing

After a gruelling  11hrs overnighter border crossing from Saudi to the UAE and two restful days on the beach the Boegers and I drove deep into the desert Rub Al-Chali to watch those crazy guys driving  up the 120m high dune, which is named “ the “Terrible Hill". This hill is set just outside of the Liwa oasis, a semicircle of approximately 50 oasis located very close together smack in the middle of this huge desert.
Soon we got to know some young men who asked me, if I would like a ride. Do I like a ride!!??? YESSS! PLEASE!!! We just had to wait for Rasheed with his Jeep and off we went. We didn’t go the shortest way up. This would have been boring compared to the way Rasheed took me and his friend. The backway was plastered with steep dunes, which made for a far more exciting ride than any Rollercoaster. Rasheed, you are a dune artist! This ride was quite a thrill!!
Another two things I find quite fascinating:
Rasheed he had driven the 40kms to the dunes not on the road but through the desert. When asked he said he did not use any navigating System, he just knows how to get to where he needs to in the desert, after all he’d been living in the desert for 30 years. Considering, that for me the dunes don’t look too different from one another, and in addition they change shape and move I find this astonishing.
The other thing is: here he is driving through the desert, in his open car, and I am sure, sand squirting all around him, as he has no responsibility for a passenger, and his Thoub and Shamagh (my Emirati friends, please correct me if you call your clothes differently) his robe and head dress, are the brightest of white. No speck of dust to be seen. His friends also. How do you do this guys? You always look so smart and clean and I, with my travel clothes always feel like Aschenputtel beside you.
I tried to record the ride, but I had to watch where we are going and so the film contains more dashboard than dune. Unfortunately. So I only attach the downhill ride which was quite uneventful compared to the ascent Czytaj więcej