Jenny and Jeremy Robinson are a Kiwi couple with two daughters Mia and Imogen. They have lived in Abu Dhabi for over four years but had never camped in the desert. Obviously this had to be rectified. So we headed for our favourite camp/picnic site near Qasr al Sarab.

Unfortunately we were intercepted by the hotel 4wd safari driver who told us that we were not allowed to drive in this area as it was for the exclusive use of hotel guests. With thousands of miles of sand dunes in the Empty Quarter this should not have presented a problem and we were able to drive down a neighbouring sand dune into another secluded valley.

We obviously had not gone as far away as they would have liked. The next day, while exploring the dunes, we came across a table with boxes of dates, a flask of tea, and cups and cushions on the ground. It was the area that the hotel was using for falconry displays. We had a group photo and then left quickly before any hotel people arrived.

Highlights for the girls seemed to be  sandboarding down the dunes on a skateboard with its wheels removed and the bouncy trip up the sand dunes when the time came to leave.