Fucking AWEsome weekend!

There were four of them...

A Pajero, Ford Escape, Jeep Cherokee and the Land Cruiser ( listed in ascending order of coolness!).

Destination Fossil Rock

The Pajero was driven by an idiot. So we got stuck before we even got to the dune bashing areas. The sand is soft, and when you're going downhill, you mustn't hesitate and hit the brakes or you'll get stuck. And the more you hit the accelerator, the deeper you'll sink.

Like so...

(fyi, idiot not in pic, he's sitting inside and I hope to God he doesn't blog!)

Anyway, it was almost sunset by the time we set off again.

By the time we finally got to the campsite, it was pitch black and we had to rely on the bonfire and the headlights of the cars to pitch the tents (which was fuckin hard to do btw!)

We set up camp, got the bbq working, set up a bar on top of the cruiser, and I got totally wasted!

Singing,dancing , chasing someone (!?!), falling down, eating all kinds of exotic cheese ( this guy who loves cheese brought alll sorts of varieties to eat with mortadella and I now love him almost as much as I love cheese), looking up at the stars and trying to make out constellations ( didn't work of course, at that point I wouldn't have been able to tell the moon from a plane!)... it's all one big happy blur.

In the morning, we decided to split into two groups, one group would stay behind at camp with two vehicles, and the other two would go do some serious dune-bashing. I went the first time with my Iranian friend and his family in the Jeep. We were following the cruiser (driven by the cheese-lover, who also happens to be a fantastic desert-driver.

We got back to camp and checked out who else wanted to go. There were just about 3 of them who wanted to go, and they trooped into the Jeep, and I got into the cruiser with the cheese-lover. And this time, he let me drive! ( I love him more now, almost as much as I love the cruiser!)

It was a manual one, so I had a bit of trouble in the beginning, but then I was fine. They didn't take any of the really tough dunes, and all I really had to do was follow the car in front of me. We were going along just fine when suddenly the guy in the Jeep yelled at me to turn back. It was too steep and the sand was too soft. So I turned back.

Too late. We slid back a bit, and we got stuck. And then the Jeep got stuck too.

It took a while to get out of there, and I took a video of the whole thing.

I've put up a very small portion of it here ( cos the whole thing has too much dialogue, with people and names being called out and all), you can see the Cruiser at the side, and the angle at which it got stuck.

Anyway, we got out finally and got back to camp, and a while later two bedouins came up with their new-age camels asking for water : )

Somebody get me them Yamaha-camels!

We had a fantastic time and I took hundreds of snaps. But I'm tired, and maybe you are too , this is a long post. So I'm gonna stop with this one last snap I took on our way to Fossil Rock.

If you're in the UAE and you like a bit of dune-bashing, you should try this place.