Dubai, UAE – October 2021
After around a month of living in Dubai, one of my roommates and I have a day off together. The night before, we decided to not be lazy and actually do a little exploring. Another girl from my roomie‘s team is off too and after a quick google session, the three of us decide to visit the nearby desert oasis – Al Qudra Lakes. So we hop into our small, white Nissan Sunny rental car and head east on Expo Road.
We listen to a Funk playlist on Spotify and promise each other not to spend a single thought on work. Miraculously, we manage to take the right exit off the highway on the first try. As we drive down D63. leading deeper into the desert, we pass lots of horse ranches and a few camel farms. Then we arrive at the roundabout marking the centre of the Al Qudra outdoors activity hub.
We pass the gas station and bike rental shop and head straight for the entrance of Al Qudra Lakes Park. As we drive onto the beige sandy road, there is a big wooden sign welcoming us. Or more so, telling us what we‘re NOT allowed to do: no driving off the road, no leaving rubbish behind, stay away from wildlife and so on. I laugh at the first rule, as there isn‘t really a paved road we could drive off of. The only way we know where we‘re supposed to go is by using our Google Maps and following the tire marks left by previous visitors.
Our first stop is at a small lake marked as „Heart Lake“. Of course, all of these lakes in the middle of the desert are man-made and the Emirati architects are known for their extravagant designs. So it doesn’t surprise us that they built a heart-shaped lake. But the thing is, you can only see the lake‘s shape from the air with a drone (or if you‘re really tall) because it‘s surrounded by lush bushes.
We then continue to another, bigger lake, where we get out of the car and immediately spot a bunch of masks on the floor, half-buried in the sand. Shaking our heads, we walk closer to the pond. There are a bunch of geese and ducks living inside the fenced-in area. The birds are really fat, and the pond looks somewhat neglected. Kind of disappointed, we give it another try by walking up to the view tower. From here you can see a bunch of trees and sand – again not very impressed, we move back down to our car.
I can finally convince my roomie, who‘s the one driving, to go off-road. We cruise around the different lakes for a bit until we finally get bored. I check Google Maps for inspiration and notice a spot marked as: “beautiful place”. It looks like it‘s just behind the small hills covered in small bushes at the end of the Qudra Lakes Park. As we continue to drive in the spot‘s direction, we notice that the small hills are in fact dunes. This should have been enough to warn us, but of course, we don‘t stop here.
My roommate – who just before was studiously following the rule of no off-road driving – suddenly turns the car to the right. „There are some tire prints! I’m sure our car can drive across that hill.“ And off we go. Driving up the little hill works quite well, as the path isn‘t too sandy. On the other side, we’re rolling down the slope faster than we expected… and eventually sink into a soft pool of desert sand.
In a helpless effort of trying to get us moving, my roommate pushes the accelerator. But we don‘t move an inch. Pragmatically, the three of us step out of the car to assess the situation. All four wheels are sunken into the golden sand. The rear ones are about 2 meters from the more compact base of the dune, which encourages our immediate thought of trying to push the car backwards. My roomie gets back into the driver’s seat and starts the car in reverse.
The white bonnet is scorchingly hot, so the other girl and I lay our skirts on it and then start to push. We make a little ground, but the turning wheels are sinking deeper into the sand. Someone has the genius idea of putting the foot mats, from inside the car, behind the wheels to prevent them from being buried completely. For about 15 minutes, we are occupied with more pushing, digging out the wheels and adjusting the mats. We‘re advancing a good meter closer to the hard ground, but it‘s still not enough to drive away.
At that moment of despair, we suddenly hear the sound of an engine. A red four-wheel quad with a staff member of the park emerges from behind another hill. One look at us is enough for him to know what‘s up. He makes a hand gesture which tells us he‘ll be back soon. Just a minute later, he reappears from the other side, along with a couple of other men and a bulldozer.
Then, they tell us to step away and fasten one end of a towing rope to the back of our car and the other one to the back of the bulldozer. My roommate gets back into the car, puts the gear into Neutral and holds onto the steering wheel. Effortlessly, the bulldozer moves up the dune, pulling our small white car over the hill. The other girl and I follow on foot, along with the rest of the men. Thankful for their help, we leave them a tip and then WALK to the „beautiful place“, which turns out to be a very pretty dune landscape. At least we were at the end of this tiring excursion blessed with a beautiful sunset. Which we enjoyed so much, that we missed our exit and thanks to Dubai’s road network had to go for a 20-minute detour.
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