1st Desert Romp Nov. 5th 2008

Erin and I decided that after a week of owning a Land Rover that it was time to venture in the wilds of the desert. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was around 35C or 95F for our US readers. The sand was too hot to walk on, even in sandals. We drove about an hour out of Dubai towards Hatta. After passing through a few small villages along E44, mostly comprised of tiny supermarkets and CD stores, we found the landmark we were looking for, Fossil Rock. It turned out to be a smallish hill made up of what looked like a dried mud castle with fissures and crevasses.

We pulled off the E102 highway and turned off the round-a-bout straight into the orange sand. After a quick depressurization of the tires we pressed on. There were a few trails in the sand from past adventurers. The Land Rover performed well, we didn't want to challenge it too much the first time out, especially since we were going solo. The uphills in the looser sand became a bit of struggle for the mass of the Land Rover, but putting it in low range and backing out wasn't a big event. We got round on the east side of Fossil Rock where the dunes appeared to be less driven. We cruised along a ridge on the dunes making fresh tracks. We had a bit of a struggle after dropping into a trough. The sand in the hollow was softer than the rest had been and the Land Rover's front wheels sunk to the skid plate. With a little bit of digging with our hands in the sand and some finesse with the accelerator we crawled out the way we came. I think the next investment for the car will be a folding camp shovel.

There were several camels roaming the sand dunes, nosing around for a sparse scraps of shrubbery that can survive the summer heat and arid winds. The camels didn't seem to bothered by us or the Land Rover, we drove straight up beside them. Once we got the tires pumped up again, we headed down the road a bit more and saw a camel racetrack and had a quick look. It was almost a little village of its own with a grocers and laundromat. There was a "camel compound" where they were training and housing the racers. Soon we will have to ride one of these awkward looking creatures with their Bubba lips. "Son you better tuck that lip before you get in caught on a tripwire." Lt. Dan