Have you ever been skiing? Right, well, imagine that gliding sensation, however instead of skis, believe you’re in a Toyota Land Cruiser, and as opposed to snow, consider it’s sand. That’s what dune bashing appears like. A day or so within the wilderness is critical if you’re in Doha. You need to peer the sand, not simply the skyscrapers. And it doesn’t take lengthy to depart the cosmopolitan bustle in the back of you as you speed in the direction of the dunes.
Within half an hour or so of using south from the metropolis, you’ll arrive at a barren region camp: a couple of small tents wherein you can drink hot sugary tea, watched via the resident falcon, a handful of camels which you can ride, and a few obliging men who helped our driver deflate our Land Cruiser tyres. In the desolate tract, tyres need to be flatter than on the tarmac to avoid getting caught. You don’t need to get grounded inside the warmness.
Are there snakes accessible?” I ask our guide, peering out at the dunes from under my hand, shielding my eyes from the solar. “Course,” he replied shrugging. “It’s the wilderness. And scorpions. But the black ones are alright. It’s the brown ones which might be awful. Tyres deflated, we get returned inside the automobile and set off, aiming without delay at a dune as steep as a mountain. Up we cross at pretty a lick, Frank Sinatra singing My Way at the radio. And then, like on a rollercoaster, abruptly we’re sliding down the opposite facet of it.
Again and once more, we climb up a dune, or roar alongside the aspect of 1, and drift down a sandy slope as though it’s a crimson run in the Alps. It’s well exhilarating, rocking backwards and forward and heading off sand bumps. Top velocity is set 40mph, “otherwise you can lose the automobile’s bumpers, ha ha!” laughs our driving force, as he speeds in the direction of every other crest.
Qataris like the barren region while it’s windy, he tells me, so that the dune surfaces are swept as clean as glass. It’s a weekday, so ours is the most effective vehicle snaking over the panorama. But at the weekends, locals come in their 4x4s in droves and try and out-do each other, imparting a sand show for onlookers. Shimmering within the distance, on a seaside just set returned from the sea, is every other wasteland camp – Regency Sealine Camp. We head there for thick Arabic coffee. Imagine it like the Soho Farmhouse of the desert. You can live for an afternoon. You can live for an evening, or several nights in case you’re after the entire Arabic glamping revel in.
They have 15 huge ensuite tents, (don’t panic, completely air-conditioned), for overnight or weekend journeys and a string of canopied day beds on the white-sand seashore for lolling on at some point of the day. The aquamarine sea looks like something you’d see on a honeymooner’s postcard. Stay for a lunch of lamb skewers and mint tea, or overnight for dinner by candlelight.
There’s a campfire every night, and the subsequent morning, if you feel like heading out into the dunes once more, you can have a pass at sand-boarding. Or, in case you’ve were given your children with you, they can romp across the playground while you read your e book in among dips in the sea. There’s not anything around the camp for miles, so the best factor that would disturb you is a wandering camel. Truly, an oasis.
