My Weekend In Pictures (Tag-A-Long #006)

Friday started with a particularly beautiful sunrise; a lovely prelude to a great day!

After meeting my guests we set up our campsite: always put a flag on the dune above it to reduce the chance of finding a vehicle on top of your tent in the middle of the night!  If one of your guests wants to do this, and take your dogs for a walk at the same time, even better – thanks Heinz!

Ramlah  had her first encounter with camels – don’t worry I rescued her!

We took a meandering drive in the desert and found a plantation; one of the owners was there and he gave us a tour and explained how it was on the site of a water well which had been in his family for generations.

We went to the camel festival and discovered a bit of gathering in the middle of Million Street – turns out we were witness to a camel auction and all the dancing and singing which goes with it!

In the evening we were lucky enough to go to HH Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed’s camp for entertainment and our meal.

We returned to the camp along a sand track and next morning we were rewarded with another lovely sunrise

Back at the camel festival we fuelled up our cars

Then headed to the grandstand to watch the camel beauty contest being judged.

On our return to the sand we headed westwards and after about 12kms came across a truck in a bit of trouble

As it was unladen I winched him out gently

Not long after we came to my favourite obstacle on this drive – THE slipface.  Both our guests were on their second sand drive but with a little encouragement from my very capable second lead they managed to ride the sand avalanche with no problem.

Our main waypoint of the drive was soon in view

Over the years I have often stuck Scotland and Oasis Offroad stickers on this truck (and some sad individuals have peeled them off!) but since it is almost Christmas time there was only one thing to do….

My guests, including fellow Scot Graham joined in!

While stopped we had lunch – next time I will take some tables and chairs!

The group couldn’t get enough slipfaces!

Our final sandy stop was for a group shot – lovely pic Jay!

We ended the day with another visit to the Al Dhafra camel festival; sadly we were too late to see the prizegiving for the camel beauty contests but we were in time to see the next best thing – judging of the beautiful saluki competition!

And that was my weekend!  If you wished you were there please note that although I do not have any UAE  tag-a-long tours scheduled I am available for private hire from now through to March!