A Night in Dubai Desert Luxury
Nestled on a cocoon of cushions, one hand tucked under my head, the other idly running cool sand through my fingers, the camp settled down. Lights blinked off one by one, leaving only the soft crackle of the fire during our night of Dubai desert luxury.
Snuggling further into my scarf my eyes began to adjust to the glorious canopy overhead. Billions of stars, some shining with fervour, others more shy and quietly glimmering. The few constellations I know began to appear (and the itch to retrieve my slowly flattening phone and download a stargazing app strengthened despite a lack of electrical sockets and wifi connectivity) and the silence grew further.
I simply lay there and fell into an almost meditative trance. The feel of a light breeze whispering across my face became something I wanted to treasure for ever, the hard romance of an unforgiving clime so different from my own green island home.
Our humble boudoir lit with a torch was swathed in richly decorated tapestry walls, thick carpets and a a scattering of sand brought in with our shoes. Slipping into fleecy pyjamas more often seen on our London couch, I sensibly wriggled into bed, but not before setting a pre-dawn alarm clock.
We seemed to wake 3 minutes afterwards (in reality we had managed 5 hours of sleep during our night of Dubai desert luxury) and shrugged on fleeces and shoes before grabbing water bottles and staggering out of the camp, and up a few nearby dunes in the dusky light.
I can’t tell you in words how beautiful that sunrise was. Deep indigo turned slowly to inky blue, soft lavender, russet red. Then, as the sun began to peek over the horizon intense ochres turned to soft peachs and rich yellows.
And the day was only just beginning…
Nearly everyone I spoke to about going to Dubai insisted that we take in a desert activity or two, and I am so very glad we did.
