Tuesday 4th / Wednesday 5th of June 2019 - Dubai

Arrival in Dubai was at around 12pm - lots of construction still going on here - the harbour has changed a lot in the last 9 years.

Dubai Skyline

First thing we noticed was the haze around everywhere - initially I thought it was pollution - but according to the various guides that I talked to it's actually air-born sand.

Sunset (yes sunset) the first day in Dubai

The sand in this place isn't like what most people think of as sand - it's more like a very fine powder (almost like cooking flour, when the wind picks it up it just goes!).

The first day in Dubai we didn't have any plans other than to go through the immigration check.  For some reason they felt it necessary to unload all passengers and crew and have a 'face to face' immigration check.  Offloading nearly 3000 people and then not letting them back on until every was checked is a lot of work.

Thankfully the Terminal was quite large and air-conditioned! damn it's hot here!

Along with arrival in Dubai - Dave started coughing and sneezing (literally as we docked he started sneezing from all the dust/sand in the air).

Anyway - he was down for the count, with a head-cold - so on the second day in Dubai I headed off myself for the 4WD Desert Safari!

Some of the vehicles

Once again it's the Toyota Land-cruiser that's being used - one thing I did notice was the roll cage that was visible inside.

We drove out of the city and in no time things were starting to look like a desert.

Cell-Tower

Oh - one interesting thing - they 'disguise' their Cell-Towers here as very large date palms! 

After a brief stop to deflate our tyres we drove off into the desert, stopping at the occasional oasis to look at the wildlife and trees.

Getting ready to go offroad

Then we went into the more serious desert and off-road.  I've driven on sand back in Australia, but this wasn't like beach sand at all - all powdery and soft - the driver seemed to enjoy forging his own way (as many times we didn't follow the group and ended up jumping over dunes into the unknown)

Bedouin campsite

After quite a bit of fun jumping dunes we arrived at a 'bedouin' campsite where we had an earlyish lunch - the heat by this stage was getting ridiculous (see pic) - It made me really appreciate how important shade is in the desert.

This was the temperature around 11am

Anyway - now I can say I've experienced the desert - and nope, I'd rather not be in a desert!

Brett in the middle of nowhere

After a little more 4WDing we made our way back to the ship - we were tied up not far from the QE2 - which is now a floating restaurant/shops/etc.

The next stop is Aquaba - we had planned to do a trip into Petra - unfortunately the first day out of Dubai I also picked up a cold - so both Dave and I have been down for the last almost week (which is why it took me ages to post this) - We might have been ok if we'd had a few more days of rest - but when we got told the trip into Petra involved walking 5-7 miles (each way!) in 45 degree temperatures (yes the bus drops you off a mile and a half from the opening of the Sik - and then it's another several miles down into the chasm (walk down hill on the way there, and up hill on the way back).

So I'm not sure what we'll do in Aquaba - we might just get off the ship and walk around near the port.

We've gone past the Gulf of Aden and are in the Red Sea at the moment - Interestingly tonight's movie up on deck is Captain Phillips - seems kinda inappropriate to me.. but what do I know.

Also - we've had no TV signals since Oman - so no news/etc, the Sat dish is still down - we've been told that they'll try to fix it when we get to Malta.