Arabian Adventures

Today really has been a day of adventure, which started this morning with a flight on a seaplane with GadgetKid, to get an aerial view of Dubai.  Sherry & G picked me up from our hotel at 9.30am and drove to the Dubai Creek where the plane is based, and as we were early, they gave me a little tour around the area.  The plane seats 9 passengers with one person up front with the pilot, everyone has a window seat and Sherry and myself were given the priority seats at the back as we offered to take aerial shots and to give the best to the owner of the company for him to add to his gallery.  

Unfortunately although it was hot and sunny today, it was very hazy and there was a lot of turbulence, so it was very tricky to get decent photos - as soon as I'd focused on something the plane would drop or was vibrating so much that my camera was shaking.  It was an amazing experience though, and I really appreciate Sherry coming with me, even though the turbulence left her feeling sick.  

Then this afternoon Alan and I were picked up from the hotel and driven an hour out of Dubai to the desert for a desert safari.  We were actually booked for tomorrow, but the forecast is for rain again tomorrow night, so we rearranged our booking.  We were very lucky as the cars hold 7 passengers and it's very expensive to have a private car, but we actually ended up being the only ones with our driver Fida.  He was a lovely young Emirati man, who gave us lots of information on Dubai during our drive to the desert, and once in the desert, kept pointing out the gazelles when he saw them, and would slow down and wind the window open for me to take shots.  It was so much fun doing the dune bashing and sliding down the dunes, and we stopped at one point for a photo opportunity, where even though there were 'professional' photographers, Fida was happy to come with us and take photos of us with my camera.  He had us jumping in the air and throwing sand to make an arc which you can see in my extras.  We then returned to the cars and carried on through the dunes to the next point where we stopped to watch the sunset.

Our final stop was at a Bedouin camp where you could ride a camel, there was sand boarding and a photo opportunity with a falcon. Dinner was also included in the camp, there was a belly dancer, and at the end of the evening they turned all the lights off so we could sit or lie and do a bit of star gazing.

We chose not to do the sand boarding or the camel ride - purely because it was only a 5 minute ride and I've done it before and in all honesty I couldn't be bothered getting on and off for such a short ride.  It was nice to see the camels though, so I took photos instead. 

It was another great experience, the only disappointing thing was it being on the same day as my flight. It's made my choice of blip quite difficult hence all the extras, but despite the haze, my choice had to be the aerial shot of The Palm as this is a view I'm very unlikely to see again.