Our local Dubai Agent, Sachin, took me and our Global Sales Manager, Pete, out to the dunes Friday afternoon, while visiting Dubai. Pretty touristy, but what a great time.
Of course, we all know there are many Land Cruisers in the region, but the vast number is not believable. I would guess there were thousands of 200 series cruisers, all dedicated to this tourist event that happens in the afternoons/evenings. Apparently, to set up a small operation, you buy 7-10 or more cruisers, hire drivers that must have a specific license to drive off road as a tour guide, pay commissions to tour agencies around town, pay the camp a fee per head for the dinner and show and away you go. Seems like a brutal business. I would say it is like my Puerco run on steroids.
Its about a 30 min drive from Dubai city center to the welcome areas off the highway. At our welcome center (maybe there were 20 or so of them), you could ride camels, buy gifts, rent side by sides/ATVs etc. After spending about 1 hour there, we met our group of 6 or 7 other trucks (all with the same company), and proceeded to dune bash for 30 - 45 mins.
What I found interesting is that they run these truck very hard, every day, 7 days a week for the season, which is about 7 of the cooler months of the year. They shut the whole thing down in the high summer. Our truck was a earlier 200 series that our driver struggled to get the center diff lock to engage/disengage. In this application, I could see why one would want a "tank". Looked like every truck was fitted with roll bars. You typically air down to 15-18 pounds. You return to a nearby welcome center by the trail head where peasants air up tires in hopes of getting a 10 Dirham ($ 2.70) tip.
Once we got done dune bashing, which was in Sharjah, the northeast Emirate from Dubai, we then proceeded on payment for another 20/30 minutes to the Sharjah/Dubai boarder. We parked our cruiser, walked across the boarder and got into another cruiser, entering Dubai Emirate, where alcohol is tolerated. We proceeded 10 mins into the desert, past many "camps" to our larger camp. There we ate a buffet dinner, had some beers/wine and saw a show.
Pretty interesting experience.
Google Photo link has some videos along with most of these photos. Google Photo Link
Of course, we all know there are many Land Cruisers in the region, but the vast number is not believable. I would guess there were thousands of 200 series cruisers, all dedicated to this tourist event that happens in the afternoons/evenings. Apparently, to set up a small operation, you buy 7-10 or more cruisers, hire drivers that must have a specific license to drive off road as a tour guide, pay commissions to tour agencies around town, pay the camp a fee per head for the dinner and show and away you go. Seems like a brutal business. I would say it is like my Puerco run on steroids.
Its about a 30 min drive from Dubai city center to the welcome areas off the highway. At our welcome center (maybe there were 20 or so of them), you could ride camels, buy gifts, rent side by sides/ATVs etc. After spending about 1 hour there, we met our group of 6 or 7 other trucks (all with the same company), and proceeded to dune bash for 30 - 45 mins.
What I found interesting is that they run these truck very hard, every day, 7 days a week for the season, which is about 7 of the cooler months of the year. They shut the whole thing down in the high summer. Our truck was a earlier 200 series that our driver struggled to get the center diff lock to engage/disengage. In this application, I could see why one would want a "tank". Looked like every truck was fitted with roll bars. You typically air down to 15-18 pounds. You return to a nearby welcome center by the trail head where peasants air up tires in hopes of getting a 10 Dirham ($ 2.70) tip.
Once we got done dune bashing, which was in Sharjah, the northeast Emirate from Dubai, we then proceeded on payment for another 20/30 minutes to the Sharjah/Dubai boarder. We parked our cruiser, walked across the boarder and got into another cruiser, entering Dubai Emirate, where alcohol is tolerated. We proceeded 10 mins into the desert, past many "camps" to our larger camp. There we ate a buffet dinner, had some beers/wine and saw a show.
Pretty interesting experience.
Google Photo link has some videos along with most of these photos. Google Photo Link
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