Sun, sand and surfing (with a JEEP)

When your almost entire country is covered with sand I guess you will at some point find yourself driving in it. Actually that is not a bad thing. One of the best activities that you can indulge around here is 4WD in the desert sand dunes. It is really a ton of fun.

Our playground :)

I have bought our JEEP specifically to be able to do this. You really cannot spend time here without indulging in a bit of dune bashing. We were fortunate enough to be introduced to some really experienced desert drivers and campers who make it so easy to do this. Our particular guide was a veteran of many of these adventures. His name is Marek and he has been at it for about 15 years. And you can really tell.

Marek taking a group photo

He took a group of us first timers into some gorgeous desert country for a day. He was totally equipped for this business and was able to guide us with both direction and advice. Two weeks ago we met at an agreed point where he checked our cars to make sure that we had the right cars etc. He immediately gave us radios for communications and we set off for the dunes.

Our start-off point preparations

Preparations include many activities

Whilst driving there we saw a 3 truck pile-up in the middle of nowhere. Completely flat, not a shrub in sight and they managed to run into each other head to tail. It looked so funny as you have so much room to swerve and avoid accidents. They must have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Having arrived at our desert take-off point we proceeded to deflate our tires and then took off. I took mine down to 15 PSI and promptly got bogged after a couple of kilometers. It was shovel in hand and dig. Typical male attitude. Power solves everything, Took me a while to get the balance right. All other newbies were stuck as well. So the first hour was spent shoveling sand. Fun, fun, fun.

Down to the axles

All hands to the rescue

We really did not know where Marek was taking us but it was like driving on a cloud. The soft sand makes the driving incredibly smooth. As we drove we spotted a gigantic dune with a very steep face. We all looked around and laughingly exclaimed "Gee, wouldn't want to be going that one, would we now!". But as we got closer there was a sneaky feeling that it was the exact place where we were heading. And so it was. We pulled up to top got out looked down and said "No way".

Launch point on the top of a dune

Ready for descent

And some descent it is!

Just some other photos from the day!

And finally here are some videos from the day. Simply exhilarating.