Today was a slightly more relaxed day as we had nothing organized until the afternoon, when we were scheduled to get driven to a desert conservation area to experience some soft four wheel driving and dinner. Before that we relaxed and visited Dubai Mall again, this time for lunch.

Our pickup for desert dinner arrived on time about 15:00 but we were surprised to see that it was not a bus but a new almost top of the line Landrover Defender, with only two other passengers; a young couple from Brazil.

During the drive out to the desert our driver/guide Oscar, a very large African man, gave us a running commentary on interesting bits of the scenery and culture.

Before the formation of the UAE the locals were nomads but now they live in one place and as he put it "they don't ride camels anymore they drive V12 and V8s". The only use of camels now is for racing and for various kinds of food products including milk and chocolate.

The government provides all newly married citizen couples free land on which to build a house and money towards the building of that house.

The business that was organizing this adventure (Hero Experiences) was started by an Australian guy and a Syrian guy and has been supported with land access and other help by one of Dubai's royal family. We soon discovered that the Australian principal in this business is a Landrover fan and has assembled a significant collection of old Landies. We picked the bright green one for our Lawrence of Arabia pose.

After being kitted out in approved head scarfs we went on a gentle 4x4 drive through some very tame desert and got the change to view some local gazelle and oryx. The oryx are the big white animals. In addition we saw a few sand fish actually skinks.

Back at base we had a demo by a guy who trains Peregrine Falcons After we all got to pose with the birds he had the falcon fly to catch a tethered lure that had some chicken attached. That was the birds dinner. He used a small GPS device on the bird and a phone app to measure its speed; today 85km/h. This breed of bird has been clocked at 240km/h when attacking in a vertical dive.

He made the point that there is no relationship between bird and handler, the bird only reacts to food rewards. By the time the bird presentation was over the sun was setting.

Next up was a camel ride and the guides and camel handlers encouraged us to adopt silly poses. The end of the camel ride coincided with the rise of a new full moon and we relocated to a small oasis where private cabanas were provided for each couple/group and dinner was served.

After dinner the bird guy returned with a beautiful owl.

Thus ended a very pleasant and interesting afternoon/evening.