A buggy ride through sand dunes sounds like fun , right? Even when "wall of death" and "vertical descent" is used to describe part of the journey, it can't be that bad, can it? After all, it´s only sand! That's what I thought as I climbed into the topless dune buggy and took off for the hills! Ah, freedom! Perched on the back of the seat, wind in my hair, flying down the beach to the tune of the waves. Even the downpour of rain couldn't quench our spirits! It did however put a damper (no pun intended) on the planned camel ride! Instead we made friends with the local lizards as they made themselves at home on my head !
Our next stop went a little better, being inside, and I was in my glory as I got to pat some sharks! A little like sandpaper, they were! We checked out some other funky sea critters including some beautiful yellow sea horses and then were happy to see the sun return for the remainder of our trip! It was now time to hit the dunes!
My God! Most people would choose to avoid the edge of a cliff....but not our driver! A few minutes into the dunes and he had our 2 left wheels over the side and the whole car driving at a slant of almost 90 degrees! The whole world tipped sideways and I have no idea what prevented us from tumbling to our death ! But then if that wasn´t enough, he had to do a few forward roller coaster hills before finally letting us out for a cool-down in a lagoon! A few more hair raising stunts followed, and then, much less frightening, a quick slide down a suspended rope in a harness to the lagoon about 8 stories below. A rope was strung from the top of a dune to the far side of the lagoon, and once over the middle of the water, they dropped you from your swing-like perch. My travel partner decided to do it twice...the 2nd time hanging by his hands. Unfortunately, he dropped too soon and found out just how hard water can be! Our next stop was the same idea, but the sliding was done on a small wooden toboggan, propelling you halfway across the lake at the bottom, until you sink...hopefully, before you reach the stone wall on the other side!
Our trip ended with a maniac drive through the private military zone, again seeing a little too slanted for my liking. And then....to end things with a bang, he drove us to the top of a high cliff, stopping inches before going straight over the edge into the rushing river below (remember that this is SAND, that tends to cave in if you stand on the edge) Afraid of death, we all jumped out until assured that he wasn't crazy enough to attempt it and! until he'd backed the car up a respectable distance!! But no...he'd tricked us! As we all screamed, he inched closer and closer until IEEE!!!!!!!! down we went!! In slow motion! I guess because the sand was so soft,it slowed our progress and allowed us to ease into the water without flipping ass over tea kettle into the river, splatting us like bugs onto the windshield and ending our holiday on a very bad note!!
But that wasn't to be the last of it! Now in the river, we had to get back out! That entailed driving through the water for about 300 m and out the other side! Unfortunately, wet sand is quick sand and we quickly sank! All of our pushing and lifting wasn't doing a bit of good so with the water now up to the seats, our driver left to find some help while I recorded to event for prosperity...and giggled Finally, soaked from the spinning wheels, we made it out and headed DIRECTLY home!!
So, the lessons learned for the day are....it doesn't matter if he "does it every day"....and ....when they say "buggy rides with emotion", they really mean it!!!
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