Dune Buddies!

Today I did my visa run down to the Oman border and as we (GK and I) drove back through the impressive terrain, the sun was sinking low!

The revellers riding the dunes with their 4 wheel buggies were catching the last dying rays for that final adrenelin rush before heading for home, a quick wash and spruce up, ready for a night out dining in one of the many gourmet city restaurants.....a nocturnal feature of the Dubai Friday scene!

Oblivious to the mayhem they had wreaked on the dunes throughout the course of the day.... another, more impressive nocturnal scene would soon begin to surface once the silence and stillness reclaimed its rightful place in those barren wastes.

An altogether very different kind of night life!

The waste warriors, an environmental wonder team.

Insects like the dung beetle, in particular who helps clean up by taking left behind solid waste into underground burrows and laying their eggs inside so the larva can feast upon it.

Arachnids, the eight-legged creatures including spiders and scorpions. One arachnid, the camel spider, measures up to 6 inches long. They too, are nocturnal predators.

Scorpions, such as the Arabian thick-tailed which measures between 4 and 5 inches long. It lives in these sandy desert areas where there is some plant cover, and only comes out in the dead of night. Its two front claws and tail have a characteristic thickening, like Popeye's forearms.

Reptiles, like the monitor lizard and Arabian cobra. The lizard is yellow-brown in color with black bands across its body and the Arabian cobra grows to be up to 6 feet long! It can be black, copper or tan with a yellow belly and is the largest venomous snake in the Middle East.

Add to these, the camels, hedgehogs, hyraxs (rock badgers) foxes, ferrel cats and gerboas, roaming the slopes of the dunes and you have a formidable team that would put Charlies Angel's to shame in the way they diligently execute their duties.

By tomorrow morning the desert landscape will once again look in pristine condition, thanks to their efforts!

If only the gourmet diners, now tucking in, were half aware of their Dune sharing companions!

If only!!

Happy Blipping Everyone!