Having told of the Desert Safari, what could I have done; was I supposed to fold my arms on my chest and say, no thank you or say aye and head for the desert? Your guest is as good as mine, I said yes, why not? Just after a single phone call, my Dubai friend smiled at me and said, “You got it”! I was told that, at 4:00pm sharp, a vehicle would come to pick me for the Desert Safari. I was somehow briefed on what it was about, a ride into the heart of the desert followed by a dinner and an Arabian “Belly Dance’”. I hopped to catch the best of the Arabian Peninsula. Being the beginning of the weekend here, I really needed some way of turning the desert heat off and I don’t think there would be a better way of doing that than taking a trip to the heart of the desert. Don’t the wa Swahili say, “dawa ya motto ni motto” (medicine of fire is fire)? True to their word, a glamorous 4X4 Land Cruiser Lexus was parked outside my hotel; I was phoned on my new ETSALAT mobile phone to hurry so that we do not miss on the fun! Seated in the vehicle were a larger than life Indian driver and a couple in the back seat. I chose the front seat next to the bulky driver; that way, I hoped to see everything and enjoy the whole safari from a vintage point. We drove straight to the Intercontinental Hotel located at the Festive City complex. This complex boasts of at least three huge hotels (5 stars or so), a huge shopping mall (more than 10 times the size of UTC), an amusement park, a luxurious yatch docking site and a host of many other forms of businesses. Here, we picked up a German couple who were transiting through Dubai; they wanted to have some fun before their late night flight. All set, we hit the road towards the Arabian wilderness! After cruising in the luxurious Land Cruiser for an hour or so, we were out of the town into the sandy countryside. Abruptly (without warning), the driver made an abrupt swerve off the tarmac road into the roadside desert and headed straight for a 2 meters high sand dune, it is as ifthe vehicle was going to crash into the sand; without warning, he tilted the vehicle a bit and it dangerously went on top of the dune and the vehicle was atop the dune, he decided to drive on top of the dune that was barely the width of the vehicle, as a result, the vehicle sort of lost stability and began sliding towards the bottom as it tilted at an very low angle. It looked like the vehicle was going to overturn but itdid not! I turned to look at the faces of the other occupants of the vehicle and their faces looked ashy pale; no doubt, the driver had scared the hell out of them! mfashumwana@fastmail.fm
