Hi everyone! Today I want to tell you about an amazing journey across the sandy expanses of the desert on jeeps. My young man and I decided to go on holiday to the UAE, for a holiday we chose the emirate of Fujairah. It is far enough from the capital of the emirates Abu Dhabi and luxurious Dubai, but in summer it is quite comfortable temperature, not very hot, warm sea – everything you need for a relaxing holiday on the beach. But we didn’t want to lie 10 days purely on the beach, so we decided to go on 2 excursions – Dubai and jeep safari in the desert. It is about the safari and we will talk about it.
Purchased the excursion from the tour operator of the host country, the cost – 70 dollars per person. According to the guide, the price includes round-trip transfers from the hotel to the jeep safari site, the jeep ride itself for 60 minutes, camel rides at the Bedouin camp, a buffet dinner and an evening entertainment programme with dancing and a fireworks show.
What did we get for this price and did the excursion justify our expectations?
Firstly, I would like to note that we really wanted to ride in the desert on quad bikes, not on jeeps, but there was no such excursion separately, but within the framework of jeep safari for an additional fee it was possible to ride on quad bikes. That’s why we got the idea and went more for the sake of quad bikes, not putting much hope on the jeeps themselves. As you might expect, the jeeps turned out to be a triple, but let’s talk about everything in order))
At 15.00 we were taken from the hotel in the very white jeep, on which we had to drive across the desert. The car is new, in excellent condition, the driver is an Arab, speaks English well. Well, we hope we won’t roll over)). We stopped at a couple more hotels to pick up a few people – the jeep was full, 6 people. It took about an hour to get to our destination.
Already on the approach to the desert, the views are gorgeous.
I’ve been to the desert in Egypt, quite a different experience! In the Egyptian desert the sand is light-coloured, rather unsightly, and here the orange-red barchans mesmerise and delight. At 16.00 we stopped at the camp of Bedouins, where we had an hour of free time. We were told how the excursion would take place, were introduced to the infrastructure of the camp, and offered to ride a camel. Look how sad and unhappy he looked(( We didn’t go for a ride, we felt very sorry for the animal, although there were a lot of people who wanted to ride. We decided to use our free time for what we came for – quad bikes! It turned out that there were only single-seater quad bikes available, and we wanted to ride together, so we were offered a ride on a two-seater buggy. We happily agreed))) The cost – 100 dollars for half an hour, a bit expensive, but we wanted a ride, so let’s go!
The instructor showed us how to drive the buggy, put on our helmets and the ride began. We raced behind the instructor across the desert kicking up sandy dust. Very exciting! Endless sands, colourful dunes, a sense of speed – exactly what we expected from the trip! On one steep climb we even managed to get stuck! We drove for 15 minutes to a beautiful place, where we stopped and took a lot of beautiful photos, and – on the way back.
We returned to the camp insanely satisfied and filled with positive emotions. We start to slowly get ready for the jeeps themselves. By this time about 15 vehicles had gathered at the camp. We got into our jeeps and got ready for the journey. And here was a little disappointment… It felt like we were just riding on the sand in the desert! No extreme, no speed, no interesting elements of movement… We just rode in a row on the sand! We drove like this for a few minutes, suddenly we stop at a place where we can see other jeeps driving by.
After 20 minutes of measured driving we came to a huge and unusually beautiful barchan! Everyone immediately scattered to take photos among the red sand and in the rays of the setting sun.
The sand is very pleasant to the touch, so and want to run on it barefoot and throw everything around. There was not enough time to take photos of course, the drivers started to collect us to drive back. And then we decided to ask our driver to add extreme sensations on the way back))) He didn’t allow us… He said that drivers have a division into “bosses” and ordinary drivers, and only “bosses” can make turns. In that case, it’s a shame we didn’t get into the boss’s car. If of course this information is true. Well, what can we do, we go back to the camp to have dinner and watch the show.
Dinner in buffet format, not as tasty as in the hotel, but quite decent. At us cooked kebab, there was also a lot of fruit and vegetables, side dishes, pastries, soft drinks in unlimited quantities. For a separate cost you can order hookah.
Show programme super! Belly dance is not very hooked, but the dance with skirts and fire show just great! The guys were very good, we really enjoyed watching it! At the very end they turned on the music and arranged an improvised disco, but it didn’t last long – it was time to leave for the hotels. We slept on the way back satiated and satisfied))
In general from the excursion remained very positive emotions – buggies and show-programme overshadowed itself, not the most interesting trip on jeeps. And how can you not like something when there is such a vastness around?
