During my 3 week solo trip to Dubai in December I was taken quad biking by Tom Fryer, a British expatriate on a short-term assignment in Dubai. It was really fun, and reminded me of my snowmobiling adventure in Vail with my brother Al, friends Matt and Dave – way too many opportunities to go really fast on a machine I knew almost nothing about.
Activities like this are a bit less regulated in Dubai than in the U.S.; our safety tips/vehicle operating instructions/protective gear/warnings consisted of an exchange of AED 150 and a grunt. I had a terrific time and decided to do it again.
Tom is heading back home this week, so this was his farewell quad-biking trip. He admitted that over the last 7 months he’s been between 20 and 25 times. So, from that aspect, I was in good hands.
It takes about an hour to get to the rental location, and we try to do the biking in the morning/early afternoon. Much of the drive is on the Emirates Road; the main highway outside Dubai. Construction traffic isn’t allowed on Sheikh Zayed Road, so the road is congested with many trucks and cement mixers. They are only permitted to be in the right hand lane and the back-ups from these vehicles can be miles long. Picture a four lane highway with the right hand lane packed full of trucks at a stand-still and the three other lanes moving at 120 km/hour and faster.
Many of the locals like to take their SUV’s dune bashing in the afternoon and they use the same desert as the quad bikers. Needless to say, the thought of meeting an SUV at the top of a sand dune is unsettling, so we brave the midday heat to avoid sharing the desert with the big trucks.
Joining Tom and me was Jeff Collins, an Aussie expatriate from outside Sydney. His family has become close friends. It was his first time quad biking. It won’t be his last.
Basically we were turned loose in the desert outside of Sharjah. The only requirement was to be back with the bikes in 1 hour. We ran our bikes up and down sand dunes, chased camels, cows and goats, and tried to avoid the massive amounts of garbage left in the desert by campers/picnickers. We only saw one SUV, and felt better about our chances of encountering more. Like skiing, if you don’t fall-off or role your quad bike twice a day, you haven’t gone at it hard enough. Well, I qualified. I had multiple head-over-heals ejections from the quad bike. I feel a bit like I do after a day skiing moguls. Maria promised me a massage. Meanwhile I’m enjoying the benefits of Advil.
Activities like this are a bit less regulated in Dubai than in the U.S.; our safety tips/vehicle operating instructions/protective gear/warnings consisted of an exchange of AED 150 and a grunt. I had a terrific time and decided to do it again.
Tom is heading back home this week, so this was his farewell quad-biking trip. He admitted that over the last 7 months he’s been between 20 and 25 times. So, from that aspect, I was in good hands.
It takes about an hour to get to the rental location, and we try to do the biking in the morning/early afternoon. Much of the drive is on the Emirates Road; the main highway outside Dubai. Construction traffic isn’t allowed on Sheikh Zayed Road, so the road is congested with many trucks and cement mixers. They are only permitted to be in the right hand lane and the back-ups from these vehicles can be miles long. Picture a four lane highway with the right hand lane packed full of trucks at a stand-still and the three other lanes moving at 120 km/hour and faster.
Many of the locals like to take their SUV’s dune bashing in the afternoon and they use the same desert as the quad bikers. Needless to say, the thought of meeting an SUV at the top of a sand dune is unsettling, so we brave the midday heat to avoid sharing the desert with the big trucks.
Joining Tom and me was Jeff Collins, an Aussie expatriate from outside Sydney. His family has become close friends. It was his first time quad biking. It won’t be his last.
Basically we were turned loose in the desert outside of Sharjah. The only requirement was to be back with the bikes in 1 hour. We ran our bikes up and down sand dunes, chased camels, cows and goats, and tried to avoid the massive amounts of garbage left in the desert by campers/picnickers. We only saw one SUV, and felt better about our chances of encountering more. Like skiing, if you don’t fall-off or role your quad bike twice a day, you haven’t gone at it hard enough. Well, I qualified. I had multiple head-over-heals ejections from the quad bike. I feel a bit like I do after a day skiing moguls. Maria promised me a massage. Meanwhile I’m enjoying the benefits of Advil.
--Steve
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