Desert Camping Adventure - The Empty Quarter

Naz returned to Dubai last Wednesday and I don't think Piper and I have ever been happier to see him.

However, rather than take things slowly and relax, in true O'Brien style we planned a road trip and camping adventure for the weekend.

We ventured to The Empty Quarter, a unique desert area at the northern tip of the UAE bordered by UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen. It is a vast desert, home to some of the worlds largest sand dunes, approximately a three drive from Dubai (unless you have a toddler who needs to pee every half hour).

We travelled with friends, one of who had befriended a local man on a previous camping trip. We contacted Salem and he was only too happy to meet up with us crazy bunch of expat's and show us around. This kind man led us into the desert, took us to a friends camel farm, tested our 4WD driving skills before finally leading us off road into the dunes to the most secluded and beautiful camping spot.

It is quite rare to share such intimate time with local Emirate's. For the most part expatriates and locals lead very separate lives. But Salem was welcoming and engaging. While the boys set-up camp he took myself and two other friends in his car for a bash through the dunes, it was horrifying and exhilarating at the same time!

Not sure this desert has ever seen a little poodle from Australia before!

Fireside conversations

Sand boarding

My favourite pic - cars on the left, friends up on the dune and the boys sand boarding

Weekend Camping Trip

Last weekend we embarked on a camping trip with friends. Originally we planned on heading to the Empty Quarter down near Saudi Arabia, however, on Friday we woke to one hell of a sand storm! So camping in the middle of the world's largest sand desert was certainly not going to be a good idea.
We revised our plan gathered up our passports and drove north accross the UAE to the northern most point of Oman and camped at a beach called Dibba. Thankfully Dibba is surrounded by mountains and cliff faces so we were quite sheltered, unfortunately a lot of people had the same plan so it was a busy little camping hole.
Dibba is small Omani town on a large bay, popular for it's beach and sand dune 4 wheel driving fun. As the crow flies it is only approximately 60 kms from Iran across the Strait of Hormuz (which goes somewhat to explaining the strange night sky activities, no heart attacks please Nanna's we were safe).

Naz and the boys had purchased a sand board in preparation for the Empty Quarter so they were more than happy to test it out at Dibba. We also kept ourselves amused with lots of swimming, sand castle building, beach cricket, mountain climbing (although the O'Briens only made it half way up the mountain..... it was difficult carrying Piper and then Lily decided she was going no further and dug her little paws in).
As much as Piper loved running around the beach and swimming nudie rudie for a weekend I think the happiest O'Brien of all was Lily! She swam, rolled in the sand and dug her little heart out.

Sunrise - 'thanks Piper for making sure we were awake early and did not miss it'

Piper, Lily and Laura

Mornng sand board and play in the dunes 'best friends'

Yes that is a streaker on the cricket pitch!

I think her favourite thing about camping was swimming and playing nudie rudie

Aargh still having camera issues. Mountain climbing.