Tale of 2 visitors Day 12

Big day, great excitement - time for our desert safari. Darrell and I had decided that the day was not suitable for Stephanie, so had arranged to leave her with her best friend Jacqui (and her sister and parents!) for the day. Steph was very excited about it, until Friday morning dawned, and then she had a bit of a wobbly at the thought of such a long time. Settled her and dropped her off - she was quite reconciled especially when she saw the Ariel Mermaid sheets on her bed…
The rest of us drove through to Dubai, did some sightseeing, taking in the Burj Al Arab, drove onto the Jumierah Palm islands, viewed City of Atlantis, and then headed for the Mall of the Emirates. We had lunch sitting at a little café outside the snow dome, watching the skiers ski and the kids throwing snowballs. The kids were all a bit disappointed that they didn’t get to go into the snow area, but we were a bit short on time (and it’s very expensive too!). Jordynne is so super about things like that - we just say no and she accepts it beautifully but my spoilt brats moan… have told them to be more like Jordy!
Then we met up with our driver for the safari, piled into the car with him and set off on our Desert Experience. He has been doing the safaris for 15 years, so he's a very experienced driver and we all felt quite safe in his hands. Also, his car is reinforced with bars going up the sides and across the roof, so I felt a bit better about the possibility of the car rolling in the desert (which it didn’t, by the way).
We got to the sand rendezvous and met up with 9 other cars and set off in convoy. One of the cars got stuck on a dune, and we had to go back and the drivers dug him out. Our driver said it was because his passengers were scared and were making him drive too slowly when he needed to maintain speed to conquer the slopes! Jordynne and the kids were adrenalin junkies - they were urging our driver to go faster and faster. Jeannette was quivering in fear in her corner. We had two quotable quotes from the dune bashing:
Jeannette - in the middle of the desert, miles from ANYTHING - “I think I’ll just get out and walk the rest”.
Jordynne - when the dunes were a little bit smaller than huge - “It’s actually quite boring, when you think about it”.
Despite this, she said she has never had so much fun in her life!

We arrived at the camp, to Jeannette’s relief and the kids’ disappointment (did I mention that Darrell is included every time I say “kids”). Our driver shot off to get us a good table, which he somehow managed, despite the fact that Friday is a very busy day for these desert camps, and there were about 100 cars there in total. Then we got some henna painting done, snacked on shwarmas and samoosas, rode on camels, got Jordynne a scarf hung with coins which clinks every time she moves, queued for supper (separate queues for ladies and gents!) then settled down to eat and enjoy the show. There were also Shisha pipes available, but none of us felt the need for one to complete our desert experience. The belly dancer came on, and she was lovely, had huge golden wings. She got some of the audience up to dance with her - including Jordy, who shook her tinkly self with great gusto. It was gorgeous, she had to swing her hair around, huge sweeping movements with her head and shake her shoulders while turning in circles - she managed very well.

When the belly dancer had finished, our driver collected us and we headed back to Dubai. He was kind enough to take us all the way to our car in the parking garage instead of just dropping us at the entrance where he picked us up. I was most relieved, as we had 3 sleeping kids. Then shooting back to Abu Dhabi and picking up Steph from her bed at Lee’s house, and back home again. Very tired kids indeed - despite sleeping most of the way home.
Lovely day. I hope Jordynne will remember it for a long time. I certainly will - there’s been about a bucket of desert sand tipped about my house…..