Dune Bashing and Desert Days

Weekends in Qatar are Friday and Saturday and the work week begins on Sunday. This past Friday we took our first real adventure out in the deserts of Doha. We finally broke our new SUV in with a little Dune Bashing thanks to a group event with some of Ryan’s co-workers and we all had a blast. For those of you that don’t know what dune bashing is, it’s both thrilling and slightly scary at the same time. Dune bashing is the desert version of country mudding. (HA) It’s taking your truck or SUV out to the desert and wildly driving through the giant sand dunes. The more you feel the better the thrill!

Our voyage started at 9:30 am when we all met out at Sealine Beach Resort out in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately, you have to pay to visit the beach there, but little did I know that we were heading to a more exciting beach. We were given the run down on what to do and what not to do before we headed out to the dune and every one let out some of the air from their tires as instructed to better hand the sand and the dunes. I took advantage of this time and rode my first camel. I’m pretty sure that I am fully obsessed now. They’re actually really awkward, lanky legged animals, but they’re really cute and if I could have one I think I would. To answer any camel related questions that may be presented… NO, I did not get spit on and NO, I do not have MERS as far as I know. 🙂 Now that that’s out of the way here are some pictures with the camels.

Once our convoy was all set, we headed out to the desert. It was quite a bumpy ride as we tore through the sand dunes, sand flying, wiggling the wheel back and forth to prevent us from getting stuck, and nothing but pure desert for miles and miles. We finally made it to our first large dune which we all needed to manage to make it down. We all got out to check it out and noticed a few trucks struggling to make it back up the dune. This is where I started holding my breathe as I realized that a) getting stuck could be bad and b) as you’re going either up or down the dunes you can’t tell if someone will be hurling right at you because you can’t see the what is on the other side. Luckily we made it down safely, but we had our first incident of someone getting stuck as they tested out how difficult it would be to get back up. Within 5 minutes we were all back together and we continued our bumpy ride towards the sea. Let me just say that Ryan was loving this! He was driving up dunes and having way too much fun! I think he loved it mostly because it reminds him of his Jeep and mudding and being able to conquer the world in his Jeep. I guess it’s not called dune bashing for just any reason.