Have you ever been skiing? Right, well, consider that gliding sensation, however in place of skis, think you’re in a Toyota Land Cruiser, and in place of snow, imagine it’s sand. That’s what dune bashing appears like. A day or so in the wilderness is essential if you’re in Doha. You want to peer the sand, now not just the skyscrapers. And it doesn’t take long to go away the cosmopolitan bustle behind you as you pace in the direction of the dunes. Within half of an hour or so of using south from the city, you may arrive at a desolate tract camp: more than tiny tents where you could drink hot sugary tea, watched by way of the resident falcon, a handful of camels which you may trip, and some generous guys who helped our driver deflate our Land Cruiser tires.
In the desolate tract, tires want to be flatter than on the tarmac to avoid getting stuck. You don’t need to get grounded in the warmth. “Are there snakes available?” I ask our guide, peering out at the dunes from under my hand, defensive my eyes from the solar. “Course,” he responded, shrugging. “It’s the desert. And scorpions. But the black ones are all right. It’s the brown ones which are awful.” Tires deflated, we get returned inside the automobile and set off, aiming immediately at a dune as steep as a mountain. Up we cross at quite a lick, Frank Sinatra singing My Way on the radio. And then, like on a rollercoaster, abruptly, we’re sliding down the opposite side of it.
Again and again, we climb up a dune, or roar alongside the facet of one, and drift down a sandy slope as though it’s a red run in the Alps. It’s well exhilarating, rocking from side to side and avoiding sand bumps. The top pace is about 40mph, “otherwise, you can lose the auto’s bumpers, haha!” laughs our motive force as he speeds towards some other crest. Qataris like the desolate tract when it’s windy, he tells me, so that the dune surfaces are swept as smooth as glass. It’s a weekday, so ours is the only automobile snaking over the landscape. But on the weekends, locals are available their 4x4s in droves and attempt to out-do every different, providing a sand display for onlookers.
Shimmering inside the distance, on a seashore simply set again from the ocean, is any other barren region camp – Regency Sealine Camp. We head there for thick Arabic espresso. Imagine it just like the Soho Farmhouse of the wasteland. You can live for an afternoon. You can live for an evening or numerous nights if you’re after the total Arabic glamping enjoy.
They have 15 large ensuite tents (don’t panic, completely air-conditioned) for a single day or weekend journey and a string of canopied day beds at the white-sand seaside for lolling on throughout the day. The aquamarine sea seems like something you’d see on a honeymooner’s postcard. Stay for a lunch of lamb skewers and mint tea, or in a single day for dinner using candlelight.
There’s a campfire each night time, and the following day, if you sense like heading out into the dunes once more, you may have a cross at sand-boarding. Or, if you’ve got your youngsters with you, they can romp around the playground even as you study your e-book in among dips inside the sea. There’s nothing across the camp for miles, so the handiest issue that might disturb you is a wandering camel. Indeed, an oasis.
